BX  7233  /S63  R4 

Smyth,  Newman,  1843-1925. 

The  reality  of  faith 


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THE  REALITY  OF  FAITH 


THE 


REALITY  OF  FAITH 


NEWMAN  SMYTH 

AUTHOR    OF    "OLD    FAITHS    IN    NEW    LIGHT,"      "ORTHODOX    THEOLOGY 
OF    TO-DAY,"    ETC. 


''Great  reconciling  principles,  which,  if  I  could  declare  them,  might  set 
the  age  free  from  some  of  its  divisions."— F.  D.  Maurice. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1884 


COPYRIGHT,     1884,    BY 
CHARLES     SCRIBNER'S    SONS 


GRANT   &   PAIRE3 
PHILADELPHIA 


PREFACE. 

M.  Taine,  in  his  description  of  the  transition  from  the 
classic  to  the  modern  age  of  English  literature,  informs 
us  that  "  when  Roland,  being  made  a  minister,  presented 
himself  before  Louis  xvi.  in  a  simple  dress-coat  and 
shoes  without  buckles,  the  master  of  the  ceremonies 
raised  his  hands  to  heaven,  thinking  that  all  was  lost. 
In  fact,  all  was  changed." 

Marked  changes  of  late  years  have  fallen  over  the 
modes  of  religious  thought  and  speech,  and  some  among 
us,  too  easily  alarmed,  like  the  master  of  ceremonies, 
have  thrown  up  their  hands  to  heaven  as  though  all  were 
lost.  In  fact,  there  prevails  in  the  religious  world  a 
strong  and  growing  desire  to  escape  from  the  artificial, 
the  mechanical,  and  the  formal,  and  to  find  the  natural, 
the  living,  and  the  real  in  Christian  faith  and  practice. 
Among  the  laity  there  is  noticeable  an  honest  impatience 
with  continued  theological  controversy,  and  an  increasing 
concern  in  those  pressing  problems  of  real  life  which 
wait,  around  the  very  doors  of  our  churches,  for  their 
solution  in  social  righteousness  and  peace.     Among  the 


vi  Preface. 

better  educated  and  more  thoughtful  clergy,  there  is  evi- 
dent a  genuine  and  often  intense  desire  to  go  behind  the 
Protestant  traditions,  to  avoid  professional  phrases  and 
judgments,  and  to  study  theology  afresh  in  the  first 
facts  and  actual  processes  of  revelation  and  life,  and  in 
the  real  spirit  of  Christianity.  They  see  that  the  popu- 
lar reaction  from  all  theology,  although  justly  provoked 
by  weariness  of  theological  abstractions  and  strife, 
threatens  to  cut  life  loose  from  the  divine  truth  which 
is  the  motive-power  of  social  morality ;  and  they  are 
anxious,  therefore,  to  keep  the  vital  truths  of  faith  in 
efficient  contact  with  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  men. 
They  see  clearly,  and  feel  strongly,  that  we  need,  not  so 
much  a  new  theology,  but  a  real  theology. 

One  of  our  easily  besetting  sins  as  religious  thinkers 
and  teachers  is  the  sin  of  nominalism  in  theology. 
Athanasius  saw  occasion  to  warn  contending  theologians 
in  his  day  not  to  strive  about  words.  This  caution  of 
the  great  theologian  of  the  early  Church  is  alT\^ays  in 
order.  It  is  easy  for  us  to  forget  the  supreme  realities 
in  our  zeal  for  the  phrases  and  forms  which  have  come 
to  stand  for  the  living  elements  of  our  faith.  Often  it 
is  easier  for  us  to  rest  satisfied  with  some  scientific  defi- 
nition of  a  truth  than  it  is  for  us  to  seek  humbly  and 
patiently  for  the  real,  and  perhaps  larger  fact  of  revela- 
tion. It  is  easier  sometimes  for  us  to  follow  the  short 
cut  of  our  own  logic  straight  through  the  Bible  than  it 
is  to  pursue  the  longer,  and  oft:en  winding  way  of  God's 


Preface,  vii 

thought  and  God's  patience  in  the  history  of  revelation 
and  redemption.  The  questions,  however,  which  of  late 
the  clergy  have  been  called  to  meet,  are  not  chiefly  ques- 
tions about  particular  words  of  doctrine,  but  they  concern 
the  reality  of  all  faith.  Present  religious  issues  are  not 
formed  around  some  special  system  of  Christian  doc- 
trines ;  religion  itself  is  confronted  with  unbelief.  The 
religious  question  is  between  practical  atheism  and  real 
faith  in  the  living  God.  We  are  compelled,  therefore,  by 
the  providence  of  the  hour  to  return  to  the  first,  command- 
ing principles  of  the  Christian  revelation ;  and  we  should 
not  regard  with  suspicion,  but  welcome  w^ith  friendly 
ecclesiastical  hospitality,  all  inquiries,  and  especially  any 
new  Biblical  studies,  which  may  enable  us  to  stand  more 
intelligently  and  securely  upon  the  final  facts  of  the  work 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  in  human  consciousness  and  in  the 
history  of  redemption. 

The  present  spirit  and  quiet  determination  of  the 
independent  evangelical  clergy  do  not  threaten  further 
divisions  and  strife  among  brethren.  On  the  contrary, 
only  in  the  humble,  yet  fearless  desire  to  discover  and  to 
acknowledge  the  real  and  the  vital  in  every  form  of  belief, 
and  in  all  the  historic  creeds,  can  any  of  us  hope  to  win 
the  blessing  of  the  peacemaker  in  modern  thought  and 
life.  This  spirit  and  desire  are  the  opposite  of  sectari- 
anism and  individualism ; — as  it  was  a  real  faith  in 
truth,  and  a  living  sympathy  with  men,  which  enabled 
Maurice  to  write  of  himself  these  words :  "  I  feel  that 


vlii  Preface, 

I  am  to  be  a  man  of  war  against  all  parties,  that  I  may 
be  a  peacemaker  between  all  men/' 

Some  among  us,  indeed,  fear  that  the  religious  history 
of  New  England  is  about  to  repeat  itself,  and  they  warn 
us  of  the  danger  of  another  schism  like  that  which,  in 
the  early  years  of  this  century,  rent  our  churches  in 
twain.  It  is  true  that  incidental  evils  which  we  have 
suffered  from  that  separation  are  passing  away.  We  are 
out-living  the  harm  and  hurt  to  faith  from  a  too  self- 
contained  and  disputatious  divinity  in  our  theological 
schools  and  our  pulpits.  It  is  true  that  theological 
dogmatism  is  somewhat  sobered  by  the  responsibilities 
of  modern  thought.  But  they  who  fear  a  repetition  of 
the  divisions  of  the  past,  fail  to  discern  the  better  spirit 
which  already  pervades,  and  is  moving,  the  whole  relig- 
ious community.  They  need  to  lift  up  their  eyes  and  to 
behold  the  evident  signs  of  the  working  in  our  own  day 
of  that  higher  Power  which  one  of  the  pilgrim  fathers 
called,  "Zion's  Wonder-working  Providence  in  New 
England.'^  The  conservatism  of  providence  appears, 
not  in  our  cries  of  alarm  and  separation,  but  in  the  gain 
of  a  more  real  and  catholic  Christianity  in  all  denomina- 
tions of  believers.  The  manifest  destiny  of  religious 
thought  and  life  is  not  further  ages  of  persecutions  and 
controversies,  but  a  growing  fulfillment  of  Christ's 
prayer  for  the  oneness  of  his  disciples  that  the  world 
may  believe  that  the  Father  hath  sent  him.  The  present 
missionary  opportunity  of  the  Church  is  a  signal  and 


Preface.  ix 

commanding  providence,  calling  us  all  away  from  un- 
seemly contentions  and  needless  offense. 

The  pulpit  has  rightly  been  made  in  New  England 
the  last  court  of  appeal  in  the  trial  of  theological  teach- 
ings and  tendencies.  Calvinism  has  already  been  largely 
modified  in  this  country  by  the  practical  demands  of 
the  pulpit.  Any  friction  of  our  forms  of  doctrine,  and 
loss  of  power,  in  the  work  of  the  pulpit,  betray  some 
mal-adjustment  of  our  theology  to  the  actual  require- 
ments of  the  world  upon  faith,  and  indicate  the  necessity 
of  some  further  improvement  of  our  methods,  or  recon- 
struction of  our  system  of  beliefs.  We  must  have  in 
every  age  good  w^orking  creeds,  if  we  are  to  keep  the  faith. 
The  doctrine  of  the  Son  of  man  was  always  life  for  life. 

The  following  sermons  are  taken  from  those  Avhich  I 
have  had  occasion  to  preach,  during  the  past  two  years, 
in  a  pulpit  whose  liberty  has  been  won  by  others  before 
me,  and  to  a  congregation  whose  thoughtfiil  attention 
has  been  a  constant  encouragement.  The  title,  under 
which  I  have  gathered  them,  expresses  a  conviction  and 
a  desire  which  will  be  found,  I  trust,  pervading  them 
all.  I  ceilainly  have  not  attempted  in  this  volume  of 
sermons  to  construct  any  complete  and  closed  system  of 
divinity — I  have  not  sought  even  to  formulate  anew  a 
single  doctrine  of  grace ;  still  less  have  I  been  anxious 
to  state,  or  to  defend,  any  "  new  theology."  "  Alas  for 
me,"  said  that  most  daring  of  s]^)eculative  theologians, 
Richard  Rothe,  "  if  Christianity  be  not  more  than  my 


X  Preface. 

system  of  it."  Our  thought  is  never  more  than  a  cup- 
ful of  God's  truth.  Yet  there  is  a  blessing  promised  to 
him  who  brings  a  cup  of  cold  water  only  in  the  name 
of  a  disciple.  And  many  souls  are  thirsting  for  some 
living  truth  from  our  pulpits. 

It  should  not  need  to  be  said  that  these  sermons 
represent  no  party  in  the  Church,  and  no  school  in 
theology :  no  views  of  mine  should  be  imputed  to  any 
of  those  honored  theological  teachers  and  professors 
with  whom  I  am  glad  to  claim  fellowship  in  the  general 
sympathies  of  a  profound  religious  movement  for  the 
more  thorough  Christianization  of  theology,  and  with 
whom,  also,  I  rejoice  in  the  belief  that  we  have  in  the 
Word  made  flesh  a  real  revelation,  from  the  real  God, 
to  the  real  life  of  the  world. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  August  1st,  1884. 


CONTENTS. 


I. 

yr  PAGE 

Faith  a  Preparation  for  Sight, 1 


II. 

God's  Self-Revelatiox  through  Life, 17 

III. 

Ultimates  of  Knowledge  and  Beginnings  of  Faith,  .      31 

IV. 

The  Difficulty  of  not  Belie^^ng, 45 

V. 

Jesus'  View  of  Life, 60 

VI. 

Real  Christianity, 73 

VII. 

The  Christ-likeness  of  God, , 88 

xi 


xii  Contents. 

VIII. 

PAGE 

Knowledge  of  Self  through  Christ, 104 

IX. 

God's  Forgetfulness  of  Sin,     120 

X. 

Making  for  Ourselves  Souls, 135 

XL 

Jesus'  Method  of  Doing  Good, 149 

XII. 
The  Imperatives  of  Jesus, 165 

XIII. 
Methods  of  Living, 180 

XIV. 

The  Missionary  Motive, 197 

XV. 

The  Permanent  Elements  of  Faith, 213 

XVI. 

Time  a  Rate  of  Motion — A  New  Year's  Sermon,  .    .    .    229 

XVII. 

The  Law  of  the  Resurrection — An  Easter  Sermon,   .    244 


Contents.  xlli 


XVIII. 

PAGE 

Life  a  Prophecy, 266 


XIX. 

The  Last  Judgment  the  Christian  Judgment,   ....    283 

XX. 

Looking  back  upon  our  Earthly  Life, 301 


THE  REALITY  OF  FAITH. 
I. 

FAITH  A  PREPARATIOlSr  FOR  SIGHT. 

"  ^riis  $  sah)  hisians  of  (Etoli."— Ezekiel  i.  i. 

It  is  a  suggestive  remark  of  the  late  Canon  Mozley,  in 
his  fine  discourse   upon    Nature,  that  "Scripture  has 

specially  consecrated  the  faculty  of  sight The 

glorified  saint  of  Scripture  is  especially  a  beholder;  he 
gazes,  he  looks ;  ...  he  does  not  merely  ruminate  within, 
but  his  whole  mind  is  carried  out  toward  and  upon  a 
great  representation." 

Moses,  and  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu,  and  seventy  of 
the  elders  of  Israel,  we  read  in  the  book  of  Exodus, 
went  up,  and  "  they  saw  the  God  of  Israel ;  and  there 
was  under  his  feet  as  it  were  a  paved  work  of  a  sap- 
phire-stone, and  as  it  were  the  body  of  heaven  in  his 
clearness.'^  "And  the  sight  of  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
was  like  devouring  fire  on  the  top  of  the  mount  in  the 
eyes  of  the  children  of  Israel."  So  the  history  of 
Israel  begins  before  Sinai  with  Moses'  vision  of  God ; 

I 


The  Reality  of  Faith. 


and  the  Christian  prophet,  at  tlie  close  of  the  history 
of  redemption,  saw  "  a  great  white  throne,  and  him  that 
sat  on  it,  from  whose  face  the  earth  and  the  heaven  fled 
away/' 

You  need  only  trace  through  the  Scriptures  the  use 
of  the  words  relating  to  sight  to  become  aware  of  this 
characteristic  of  the  Bible  that  it  brings  its  spiritual 
teachings  and  its  promises  to  vivid,  pictorial  represen- 
tation through  the  human  eye  and  its  visions.  Thus, 
when  the  prophet  comes  with  a  word  of  the  Lord  to  the 
king  of  Israel,  he  said  :  "  I  saw  the  Lord  sitting  on  his 
throne,  and  all  the  host  of  heaven  standing  by  him  on 
his  right  hand  and  on  his  left."  The  Messianic  promise 
is  unfolded  in  pictures  of  visible  splendors.  The  wil- 
derness is  glad  ;  the  desert  blossoms  as  a  rose.  "  They 
shall  see,''  Isaiah  sings, "  the  glory  of  the  Lord,  and  the 
excellency  of  our  God."  The  New  Testament  employs 
the  same  clear  language  of  the  eye  in  its  presentation 
of  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the  hope  of  redemption. 
Jesus'  blessing  to  the  pure  in  heart  is  that  they  shall  see 
God.  He  spoke  to  a  Master  in  Israel  of  the  new  birth, 
without  which  no  man  can  see  the  kingdom  of  God. 
The  first  Christian  martyr,  "being  full  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  looked  up  steadfastly  into  heaven,  and  saw  the 
glory  of  God,  and  Jesus  standing  on  the  right  hand  of 
God."  The  missionary  apostle,  who  had  learned  what 
all  trial  is,  knows  no  better  way  of  describing  who  the 
Christians  are  than  by  calling  them  those  who  "  look  not 
at  the  things  which  are  seen,  but  at  the  things  which 
are  not  seen."  The  true  Christian  life  was,  in  his  expe- 
rience of  it,  a  "  looking  unto  Jesus."      Faith  is  living 


Faith  a  Preparation  for  Sight.  3 

as  "  seeing  him  who  is  invisible."  Not  yet,  indeed,  have 
believers  ascended  into  the  immediate  vision  of  God; 
"  But  we  all,  with  open  face  beholding  as  in  a  glass  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,  are  changed  into  the  same  image 
from  glory  to  glory,  even  as  by  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord/' 
The  Christian  hope,  which  we  are  told  should  now 
purify  our  hearts,  is  that  "  we  shall  see  him  as  he  is." 

Not  to  quote  other  passages  of  Scripture  which  show 
how  the  Bible  employs  the  language  of  sight  to  convey 
its  revelations,  let  me  call  your  attention  to  the  signifi- 
cance of  this  Biblical  method  of  speech.  For  it  is  deeply 
significant.  The  inspiration  of  the  Spirit  discloses  itself 
in  the  boldness,  clearness,  and  impressiveness  with  which, 
throughout  the  Bible,  unseen  and  spiritual  things  are 
represented  as  though  they  were  visible — as  though  we 
could  see  them.  The  glory  of  the  Lord,  the  kingdom 
of  God,  Mount  Zion,  the  city  of  the  living  God,  the 
coming  of  the  Lord  in  the  glory  of  the  angels,  the  new 
heavens  and  the  new  earth,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem, 
descending  out  of  heaven  from  God,  having  the  glory 
of  God ; — what  other  book,  what  in  this  Book  of  books 
but  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  has  made  the  unseen  realities 
of  the  eternity  around  us  appear  in  such  power  of  visi- 
ble form  and  light  ? 

By  this  "consecration  of  sight,"  and  through  this 
powerful  pictorial  language  of  the  Bible,  the  Lord  and 
Master  of  the  Scriptures  evidently  means  to  impress 
upon  us  the  outward  reality  of  the  unseen  world.  Let 
me  explain. 

The  human  eye  is  the  flower  of  the  senses.  Touch 
is  said  by  the  physiologists  to  be  the  ground-form  of  all 


The  Reality  of  Faith, 


sensation.  Touch  may  be  the  root,  as  it  were,  of  the 
senses,  but  sight  is  the  consummate  flower  of  sensation. 
The  sense  of  touch,  growing  out  of  close  contact  with 
the  elements  of  nature,  and  reaching  up  into  the  light, 
blossoms  at  length  into  the  perfect  eye  with  its  world  of 
beauty.  Sight  is  at  once  the  freest  and  surest,  the 
largest  and  the  clearest  contact  of  the  intelligence  within 
us  with  the  real  order  of  the  world  without  us.  Touch 
may  be  the  beginning,  but  sight  is  the  perfection  of  our 
belief  that  there  is  a  world  of  reality  beyond  our  self- 
conscious  thought,  an  outward  world  in  which,  with 
others  like  ourselves,  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being.  In  short,  what  we  see  with  our  eyes,  we  believe 
exists.  Philosophers,  indeed,  may  doubt  this ;  but,  to 
the  common  sense  of  men  in  general,  sight  is  the  evidence 
that  things  are  what  they  are  seen  to  be. 

You  will  perceive,  then,  one  of  the  important  mean- 
ings of  this  characteristic  Biblical  presentation  of  truth 
as  a  spectacle  which  the  believer  beholds.  The  Spirit 
of  the  Bible  uses  this  language  of  vision  to  impress 
upon  us  the  outward  reality  of  the  divine  verities  which 
it  reveals.  They  are  to  prophets  of  old  as  objects  of 
sight.  The  Apostles  looked  forward  in  hope  to  the 
perfection  of  sight  in  the  vision  of  Christ  at  the  right 
hand  of  God  and  the  glory  of  the  city  of  God.  This 
manner  in  which  the  inspired  Scriptures  keep  us  con- 
stantly looking  out  upon  the  sublime  realities  of  God^s 
kingdom,  as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible,  is  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  manner  in  which  men  of  the  world 
are  apt  to  regard  religion,  and  unlike  even  modes  of 
religious  experience  or  expression  very  common  among 


Faith  a  Preparation  for  Sight. 


believers.  Thus  a  great  many  persons,  when  religious 
duties  are  urged  upon  them,  will  respect  what  may  be 
said  to  them  as  a  sincere  expression  of  the  thought  or 
feeling  of  the  person  who  speaks  to  them  about  religion, 
but  his  words  will  hardly  stand  to  their  minds  for  any 
corresponding  realities ;  they  do  not  associate  religious 
ideas  with  the  objects  in  this  world  which  have  to  them 
present  reality,  with  those  things  in  life  which  press 
upon  them,  and  in  which  they  are  actively  engaged. 
Religion  seems  to  them  rather  to  be  a  system  of  uncer- 
tain beliefs,  a  series  of  fine  sentiments — something  for 
philosophers  to  discuss,  or,  at  best,  a  poetic  satisfaction 
for  desires  and  emotions  which  float,  cloud-like,  above 
the  ordinary  paths  of  life,  and  which  take  the  hues  and 
aspects  of  individual  temperaments  and  moods,  changing 
and  changeable  with  the  times  and  seasons.  Am  I 
mistaken  in  saying  that  to  a  large  number  of  people 
engrossed  in  the  business  of  the  world,  pressed  by  its 
tangible  necessities,  crowded  by  its  urgent  tasks,  dealing 
every  day  with  its  positive  and  palpable  objects,  the  call 
of  religion  seems  usually  like  a  distant  and  unintelligible 
sound  —  like  the  echo  of  an  Alpine  horn  among  the 
mountains  just  heard  in  the  valleys,  a  sound  not  near 
enough  to  cause  them  to  stop  and  look  up  from  their 
work ;  not  a  personal  call  summoning  them  to  a  task  at 
once  to  be  undertaken,  or  a  duty  to  be  met?  This 
world  is  real  and  present  to  them  every  day ;  religion  is 
unreal  to  them.  This  world  is  near  and  definite  to 
them ;  the  next  world  undefined  and  distant  as  the  sky. 
The  disregard  and  indifference  to  religious  mattei's 
which  such  persons  evince  might  have  some  justification 


The  Reality  of  Faith. 


if  religion  were  simply  a  matter  of  inward  contempla- 
tion, or  if  religious  beliefs  were  merely  the  play  of  so 
many  illumined  emotions  over  the  surface  of  real  life. 
But  what  if  these  religious  feelings  are  our  natural 
instincts  of  eternal  realities  ?  What  if  these  profound 
religious  convictions,  which  men  in  all  ages  have 
cherished,  are  the  impressions  which  a  living  God  is 
making  of  his  own  being  upon  the  living  soul  of  man  ? 
What  if  these  ideas  of  God,  and  immortality,  and  the 
judgment,  are  now  the  dim  dawnings  upon  us  of  some- 
thing which,  erelong,  shall  be  the  one  reality  around  us, 
outward,  present,  and  visible,  wherever  the  soul  shall 
turn,  as  now  this  world  is  the  object  which  fills  the  eye? 
What  if  these  feelings,  intuitions,  half-understood  truths 
of  divinity,  are  the  sure  signs  and  indications,  if  we 
read  them  aright,  that  the  eyes  of  our  spirits  are  now 
forming  for  the  future  open  perception  of  the  w^orld  of 
unseen  and  abiding  realities — for  the  vision  of  God? 
Turn  again,  then,  to  the  Bible  and  observe  how  these 
things  which  we  do  not  see  are  spoken  of  as  though 
they  were  the  things  to  be  seen — the  great  divine  specta- 
cle which  all,  some  day,  must  see.  These  visible  earthly 
things,  which  seem  to  us  solid  realities,  fade  in  these 
Scriptures  into  metaphors  of  those  invisible  things 
which,  to  the  eye  of  the  inspired  prophet,  stand  out 
upon  our  history  as  God's  purposes  and  God's  judg- 
ments ;  and  to  Jesus,  who  knew  the  Father,  all  outward 
nature  was  but  a  parable  of  the  kiugdom  of  heaven. 
The  Bible  is  pervaded  throughout  with  a  wonderful  sense 
of  the  reality  of  spiritual  things.  It  makes  this  pass- 
i  ing  world  seem  the  shadow,  and  the  other  world  the  sub- 


FaitJi  a  Preparation  for  Sight.  7 

stance.  The  Bible  is  au  open  eye  for  the  spiritual  world. 
Through  the  Bible  we  seem  to  be  looking  out  upon  the 
realm  of  God's  presence  and  purposes,  and  spiritual 
things  are  spread  like  a  broad  landscape  before  us  in  the 
light  of  the  glory  of  God.  The  Spirit  of  God,  through 
these  Scriptures,  inverts  the  common  order  of  our  expe- 
rience, for  it  makes  this  world,  which  is  close  around  us, 
grow  distant  as  we  read ;  and  that  land  which  is  far 
aAvay,  draws  near.  AVe  walk  wdth  the  prophets  in 
visions  of  God ;  with  the  disciples  our  conversation  is 
in  heaven ;  in  any  circle  where  Jesus  stands  in  the 
midst  this  earth  seems  to  pass  away,  and  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  its  peace,  becomes  all  in  all. 

Such,  I  say,  is  the  unmistakable  impression  of  the 
reality  of  unseen  things  which  the  Word  of  God  makes 
upon  man.  Whenever  we  give  ourselves  up  to  its 
influence,  such  is  the  sense  of  the  reality  of  divine 
things  which  often,  unawares,  comes  over  us ;  it  breaks, 
for  moments,  at  least,  the  spell  of  this  world  upon  us. 
Such  has  been  in  the  history  of  thought  the  power  of 
these  inspired  Scriptures  in  bringing  out,  almost  as  in 
visible  reality,  the  other  world,  and  the  glory  of  God. 

But  it  is  hard  for  men  in  general  to  gain  and  to  keep 
against  the  impressions  of  the  senses  this  strong  Biblical 
sense  of  the  realities  of  faith.  Yet  just  this  intense  sense 
of  spiritual  reality  is  perhaps  the  chief  need  of  faith  at 
the  present  time.  There  is  so  much  in  our  worldliness 
and  our  culture  to  make  our  spiritual  life  seem  to  be  our 
dream-life,  and  our  present  pursuit  of  happiness  our  real 
life.  There  is  much,  also,  both  in  the  questionings  of 
science,  and  the  overbeliefs  of  human  theologies,  to  throw 


8  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

thoughtful  minds  into  uncertainty  and  a  sense  of  vague 
unreality  with  regard  to  religious  truths.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  longing,  the  passion,  for  reality  is  one  of 
the  strongest  and  most  significant  characteristics  of  that 
revival  of  religious  thought  and  faith  which  from  many 
sources  is  rising  and  growing  in  power  at  the  present 
time.  It  used  to  be  said  of  Dr.  Arnold  that  his  daily 
longing  was  to  go  beyond  words  to  realities.  That  long- 
ing is  now  at  the  heart  of  the  most  religious  thought  of 
the  Christian  world.  It  is  the  intense  desire  to  see 
things  as  they  are ;  to  behold  the  living  truth  come  forth 
from  the  cerements  of  words  in  which  custom  and 
tradition  have  bound  it;  to  look  beyond  the  material 
forms  which  perish,  and  these  physical  forces  over  against 
which  our  wills  stand  self-conscious,  and  to  discern  some- 
thing of  the  intelligence  which  works  through  all ;  to 
look,  also,  through  Christianity  and  through  the  Bible, 
to  the  presence  of  divinity,  and  to  find,  amid  our 
strange  history  of  sin  and  death,  the  real  self-revelation 
of  God  in  the  history  of  redeeming  love.  It  is  this 
intense  longing  for  the  real  in  religion  which  creates 
sometimes  undue  impatience  of  old  forms  of  faith,  and 
which  certainly  can  never  rest  satisfied  in  the  acceptance 
of  mere  propositions  about  religion.  "Show  us  the 
Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us.'*  Nothing  else  will.  We 
want  not  more  correct  beliefs,  but  more  faith.  We  want 
faith  in  the  reality  of  all  spiritual  things ;  in  our  own 
souls  ;  in  the  heaven  of  souls  who  are  not  to  be  lost  from 
love  in  death  ;  in  the  living  God,  who  is  present  in  this 
world,  here  and  now,  as  well  as  once  and  there ;  the 
Father  who  knows  us,  who  thinks  of  us  where  we  are. 


Faith  a  Pj^eparation  for  Sight.  g 

"  Show  us  the  Father  !  '^  We  do  not  want  words  about 
thiugs  beyond  us ;  we  do  not  want  arguments  and  more 
probabilities  about  divinity ;  we  do  not  want  systems  of 
thought  to  bow  down  to  and  worship ;  alas !  men's 
systems  of  divinity  may  be  the  idols  which  the  people 
set  up  w^hile  the  true  prophet  is  waiting  upon  the 
mountain  for  some  vision  of  God.  We  want  more  reality 
in  faith.  AVe  want  to  be  in  Him  that  is  true.  We 
want  to  know  whether  the  whole  creation  is  a  vast  gilded 
emptiness ;  w^hether  our  life  is  but  a  bubble,  catching  a 
moment's  sunbeam  perhaps,  and  then  breaking  in  the 
restless  deep,  upon  whose  surface  it  had  a  brief 
existence ;  whether  anything  is  real  and  true  and  ever- 
lasting ;  whether  we  are  and  God  is ;  for  if  we  could  be 
sure  of  the  one,  we  could  easily  believe  the  other. 
"  Show  us  the  Father ! "  so  out  of  the  deepest  doubt 
springs  the  prayer  of  the  highest  faith ;  "  Show  us  the 
Father,  and  it  sufficeth  us."  And  the  Master  knew  our 
great  want.  "He  that  hath  seen  me,''  he  answered, 
'4iath  seen  the  Father;"  ''Have  I  been  so  long  time  with 
you  and  yet  hast  thou  not  known  me  ?  "  Oh,  doubt  of 
faith !  oh,  spirit  of  an  age  searching  for  visions  of  the  real 
and  everlasting!  have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you — 
with  you  in  the  centuries'  mighty  works  of  faith,  with 
you  in  tliis  new  creation  of  my  redeeming  love  still 
growing  and  exulting  before  your  eyes,  with  you  in  your 
own  doubt  and  searching  for  the  living  God,  and  yet 
hast  thou  not  known  me  ? 

"Yes,"  but  some  one  says,  "here  you  will  evade  again 
in  words  our  want  of  faith ;  we  ask  for  proof  of  things 
hoped  for,  and  your  answer  is  the  expansion  of  some 


lo  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

text  from  the  Bible.''  I  admit  that  it  is  so.  I  admit 
that  somehow  whenever  we  find  ourselves  searching  for 
the  real  heart  of  things,  we  discover  ourselves  repeating, 
and  dwelling  upon,  some  word  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  admit 
that  when  we  have  reached  the  end  of  our  own  knowl- 
edge, and,  pressed  still  on  by  the  irresistible  desire  to 
know  what  is  behind  and  beyond  that  which  we  see  and 
touch,  we  still  question  and  search,  we  do  find  that  these 
Scriptures  open  ways  for  our  souls  straight  out  into  a 
diviner  world ;  and  where  all  human  wisdom  is  silent, 
the  words  of  One  who  seemed  to  know  come  ringing 
down  through  the  centuries,  awakening  echoes  as  of  for- 
gotten reminiscences  of  heaven  and  God  in  our  own 
souls ;  and  where  all  our  science  is  but  larger  ignorance, 
there  in  Jesus'  light  we  see  light.  "  Lord,  to  whom  shall 
we  go  ?  thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  But  let  me 
make,  if  possible,  the  real  reasons  of  this  confidence 
more  definite. 

I  have  already  said  that  the  Bible  does  what  is  done 
nowhere  else  in  the  world,  viz.,  takes  impalpable  spiritual 
things  and  spreads  them,  like  landscapes,  around  us  as 
we  read.  It  imparts  a  tremendous  conception  of  the 
present  reality  of  the  world  to  come.  Human  empires 
become  the  dust  of  earth  ;  the  kingdom  of  God  is  forever. 
I  would  say  now,  besides  this,  that  faith,  and  especially 
Biblical  faith,  has  certain  resemblances  to  the  sight  of  the 
eye.  The  Apostle,  it  is  true,  contrasted  faith  with 
sight ;  we  are  absent,  Paul  said,  from  the  Lord ;  we 
^valk  by  faith,  not  by  sight.  We  do  not  now  have  such 
open  knowledge  of  the  eternal  reality  as  we  do  of  the 
fields  or  mountains  upon  which  we  may  look ;  if  we  did, 


Faith  a  Preparation  for  Sight.  1 1 

such  knowledge  might  be  the  end  of  that  discipline  of 
character  which  is  now  possible  because  unbelief  also  is 
possible.  Full  and  open  revelation  of  the  glory  of  the 
Lord  to  all  men  on  earth,  as  God  is  seen  by  the  angels 
in  heaven — would  not  that  be  the  beginning  of  the  day  of 
judgment  ?  So  in  this  trial- world — in  this  time  of  our 
education  and  discipline — we  walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight 
as  yet ;  but,  nevertheless,  faith  also  is  a  kind  of  seeing ; 
it  may  be  a  rudimentary  perception  of  the  world  of  light. 
Faith  is  soul-seeing ;  faith  is  the  insight  of  the  spirit 
which  is  in  us  into  the  divine  heart  of  things  without  us. 
Nay,  faith  is  the  undying  affirmation  of  the  human  heart 
that  the  darkness  and  want  of  which  it  is  conscious  are 
the  evidence  of  the  fullness  of  life  and  the  lio^ht  for 
which  we  must  have  been  created,  and  which  somewhere, 
sometime,  our  seeking  shall  find.  Faith  is  the  embryonic 
eye  of  the  soul  for  the  world  to  come  of  eternal  reality 
and  unutterable  glory.  I  think  I  can  make  this  plainer 
by  an  illustration  w^hich  I  often  use  for  myself.  Let  me 
suppose,  as  some  theorists  would  go  so  far  as  to  assert, 
that  the  eye  was  slo^dy  developed  from  the  merest 
rudimentary  susceptibility  to  light.  Before  the  eye  was 
created,  or  began  to  grow,  no  living  thing  could  have 
had  any  sense  of  darkness.  Does  a  man  born  blind 
have  any  sense  of  darkness  ?  Having  not  the  slightest 
sense  of  light,  how  can  he  have  that  positive  sense  of 
darkness  which  we  experience  when  we  close  our  eyes? 
Were  it  not  for  the  words  of  men  who  see,  this  world  of 
light  and  colors  w^ould  be  as  unknown  to  a  man  born 
blind  as  heaven  is  to  us.  He  would  have  no  possible 
plax3e  for  a  world  of  light  anywhere  within  the  range  of 


12  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

his  positive  experience  of  life.  He  knows  neither  light  nor 
darkness.  Consciousness  of  darkness  implies  some  sense 
of  light.  Suppose  the  sense  of  sight,  then,  to  have  been 
in  the  animal  creation  at  first  rudimentary.  Or,  what  is 
better  for  my  purpose,  suppose  that  in  a  conscious,  intel- 
ligent race  of  beings,  the  eye,  or  the  capacity  to  come  into 
relation  to  the  world  of  light,  begins  little  by  little  to 
develop.  At  first,  then,  the  sense  of  light  would  be  a  dim 
perception  of  darkness.  In  comparison  with  the  utterly 
visionless  state,  a  change  would  impress  itself  upon  the 
consciousness  ;  such  beings  would  perceive  something  in 
themselves  which  they  could  not  understand ;  and  meeting 
one  another,  in  their  first  rudimentary  beginnings  of 
vision,  would  begin  to  wonder  what  the  strange  sensa- 
tion meant ;  what  the  new  consciousness  of  darkness — 
the  inborn,  growing  longing  and  endeavor  for  something 
unrealized  as  yet — could  possibly  mean.  Suppose  the 
process  of  growing  vision  to  continue.  They  begin  to 
distinguish  light  from  darkness,  or,  at  least,  one  part  of 
their  existence  during  half  of  every  twenty-four  hours 
has  something  strange  about  it  which  marks  it  off  from 
the  other  half.  Suppose,  then,  at  length,  the  suscepti- 
bility for  light  becomes  the  perfect  eye ;  the  vague  feeling 
of  light  passes  into  the  clear  vision  of  the  day.  A 
world  unknown  before  nature  in  this  race  of  beings 
began  to  feel  after  the  light,  a  world  at  first  vaguely 
dreamed  of  when  the  rudiments  of  sight  began  to  form, 
denial  by  those  who  would  believe  nothing  beyond 
tangible  experience,  yet  believed  in,  and  longed  for,  by 
those  who  felt  that  their  grooving  knowledge  of  their 
darkness  must  mean  something  beyond — some  satisfac- 


Faith  a  P^^eparation  for  Sight.  13 

tion  to  come — this  world  now  spreads  its  bright  scenes 
before  the  finished  eye  of  the  perfect  man,  and  it  is  seen 
to  have  been  existing  around  them  all  the  while ;  it  had 
existed  from  the  beginning,  although  before  it  had  been 
wholly  beyond  the  experience  of  a  sightless  race,  who, 
nevertheless,  were  walking  in  it,  though  they  did  not 
know  it;  it  was  near  them,  waiting  to  be  revealed, 
though  their  eyes  were  not  yet  opened  to  behold  it. 

So  I  would  say  that  faith  is  a  kind  of  seeing — man's 
first  rudimentary  perception  of  the  heavenly  world. 
Faith  is  the  beginning  of  spiritual  sight.  We  know 
that  it  is  dark ;  and  how  could  we  know  that,  if  there 
were  no  glimmering  of  celestial  light,  if  we  were  not 
now  beginning  to  see  ?  The  soul  of  man  is  the  forming 
eye  for  the  light  of  the  glory  of  God.  We  know 
already  that  there  is  a  high  and  holy  portion  of  our 
experience  which  seems  totally  unlike  the  part  of  our 
life  in  contact  with  this  material  world.  We  know  that 
something  has  touched  us  which  makes  us  profoundly 
susceptible  to  influences  from  beyond  our  present  narrow 
world  of  sense,  and  deeply  conscious  of  longings  for  some- 
thing yet  to  be  revealed.  We  know  that  our  sense  of 
want  and  darkness  is  prophetic  of  something  grand  and 
beautiful  beyond.  We  know  that  so  much  of  truth  and 
light  from  beyond  has  been  given  us  that  we  cannot 
help  living  in  a  state  of  expectancy  and  great  spiritual 
hope.  Shall  God's  own  prophecy  of  the  forming  eye  of 
the  spirit  within  us  for  visions  of  the  God  around  us 
prove  the  great  mockery  and  deception  of  the  universe  ? 
Ah  !  but  within  the  whole  compass  of  our  experience  of 
nature  our  science  cannot  point  to  a  single,  solitary  false 


14  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

prophecy  of  life.  Why,  then,  shall  the  truth  of  nature 
suddenly  become  falsehood  within  the  human  soul? 
No ;  faith  is  the  apparent  beginning  within  us  of  the 
capacity  to  see  the  divine  Reality  in  which  we  have  our 
being.  All  the  years  of  this  present  stage  of  human 
development  heaven  may  have  been  existing  near  man 
as  the  world  of  light  to  the  blind — near  us,  another, 
most  real  world  in  this  same  great  universe  in  which 
we  now  walk  by  faith,  as  the  day  is  another  unknown 
world  beyond  the  experience  of,  but  near,  the  sightless. 
Faith  shall  pass  into  the  open  vision.  The  other  world, 
now  unseen,  but  not  unknown,  shall  be  revealed  in  its 
breadth  and  in  its  beauty — the  w^orld  which  needs  no 
sun  for  its  day,  for  God's  presence  is  its  light — the 
land  of  life  immortal  which  is  not  far  off,  where  we 
shall  see  as  we  are  seen,  and  know  as  we  are  known. 

I  have  not  yet  brought  out  of  this  thought  all  that  is 
in  it.  I  have  been  speaking  of  faith  in  general,  of 
man's  intuitive  sense,  that  is,  of  spiritual  and  divine 
reality ;  and  I  have  just  affirmed  that  this  most  human 
faith  is  at  least  a  knowledge  of  our  darkness,  which 
implies  some  light  from  above.  It  is  an  experience  of 
the  soul — constant  and  indestructible  in  the  life  of 
humanity — which  betrays  the  existence  of  something 
beyond.  But  when  this  general  human  faith  is  touched 
by  the  Spirit  of  God — when  the  soul  opens  in  sudden, 
and  often  thrilling  responsiveness  to  the  call  of  divine 
grace, — oh  !  then,  it  is  like  the  opening  of  the  eye  to  a 
new  world.  The  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  does  quicken 
wonderfully  and  enhance  \\\q  power  of  faith.  A  spir- 
itual assurance  follows  the  touch  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 


Faith  a  Preparation  for  Sight.  15 

In  our  conversion  we  discovered  for  what  we  ^vere 
created.  Behold,  all  things  are  become  new !  Hence- 
forth we  wait  in  hope.  We  trust  the  dawning  vision, 
and  follow  it,  and  it  does  not  lead  us  into  disappoint- 
ment. The  more  we  believe  it,  the  more  we  find  our 
lives  enlarged,  our  happiness  enriched,  and  our  hearts  at 
peace.  The  growing  prophecy  of  the  growing  light  has 
been  good,  and  only  good  to  us  from  the  first  hour  when 
we  were  not  disobedient  to  the  heavenly  vision.  We 
know  in  whom  we  have  believed.  We  know  that  the 
Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an  understand- 
ing, that  we  may  know  him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in 
him  that  is  true,  even  in  his  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  We 
shall  need  only  to  die  to  see  him  as  he  is. 

This  brings  us  to  the  concluding  thought  which  I  had 
intended  for  the  second  half  of  my  sermon,  but  which  I 
must  now  dismiss  with  a  few  words.  I  refer  to  another 
very  significant  use  of  the  language  of  the  eye  in  the 
Bible.  Briefly  it  is  this :  Through  the  eye  we  are 
brought  into  the  most  perfect  union  with  nature.  The 
eye  unites  us,  as  no  other  sense  does,  to  the  world  with- 
out. The  perfection  of  our  life  in  this  earth  is  in  seeing. 
Consider,  then,  in  this  respect  what  these  Scriptures 
mean.  Not  only  is  there  a  divine  world  of  eternal 
reality  in  which  we  are  to  live  forever,  but  we  are  to  see 
it  with  open  vision  ;  we  are  to  behold  the  unveiled  glory 
of  the  Lord.  We  are  to  live,  that  is,  in  the  most  perfect 
conceivable  union  and  harmony  wath  the  eternal  reality, 
made  one  with  the  blessed  presence  of  God.  This  is  the 
true,  the  eternal  life,  to  know  God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom 
he  Iiath  sent.     We  are  to  dwell  immortal  in  God's  own 


1 6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

world,  in  his  own  heaven,  ourselves  at  last  perfectly 
adapted  and  harmonized  to  that  sphere  of  light  and  life ; 
or,  as  the  Scripture  represents  it,  and  as  the  saints  in  all 
ages  have  desired  to  realize  it,  we  are  to  dwell  in  the 
vision  of  God.  And  that  disciple  who  had  seen  Jesus 
and  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  Son  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ,  as  he  looked  fonvard  in  the  bright  Christian 
expectation  to  his  life  after  death  with  the  Lord,  wrote 
for  us  these  assured  words  of  faith :  "  It  doth  not  yet 
appear  what  we  shall  be :  but  we  know  that,  when  he 
shall  appear,  we  shall  be  like  him ;  for  we  shall  see  him 
as  he  is.  And  every  man  that  hath  this  hope  in  him 
purifieth  himself,  even  as  he  is  pure.''  Shall  not  our 
eyes  become  sunny  with  this  Christian  hope  ?  Thank 
God  for  those  aged  Christians,  waiting  their  translation, 
who  already  in  this  world  seem  to  have  come  out  upon 
the  bright  side  of  their  life's  trouble  !  They  shall  behold 
the  city  of  God  !  We  all  are  waiting  for  the  day  of  God. 
We,  according  to  his  promise,  look  for  new  heavens  and 
a  new  earth,  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness.  Where- 
fore, beloved,  seeing  that  ye  look  for  such  things,  be 
diligent  that  ye  may  be  found  of  him  in  peace,  without 
spot,  and  blameless. 


II. 

GOD'S  SELF-REVELATION  THROUGH  LIFE. 

"^nti  1^«  Hit  inas  th  3li5tt  of  ^tn." — John  i.  4. 

There  are  texts  in  the  Bible  which  are  like  springs 
of  water  among  the  mountains.  When  our  thoughts 
grow  weary  of  climbing,  when  in  life's  glare  our  hearts 
are  athirst,  we  return  and  rest  by  these  quiet  springs  of 
inspiration.  Beside  these  unfailing  fountains  of  truth 
we  build  the  tabernacles  of  our  lives.  Such  texts  are 
Scriptures  like  these :  God  is  love ;  God  is  light ;  God 
so  loved  the  world ;  Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven ; 
Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and 
I  will  give  you  rest.  To  one  of  this  class  of  Scriptures 
I  would  come  back  with  you  this  morning.  No  men 
more  than  we,  who  live  in  this  noon-tide  glare  of  his- 
tory, ever  needed  to  find  for  themselves  and  to  drink  of 
those  fountains  of  life  which  spring  ever  fresh  from 
beneath  the  foundations  of  the  world.  I  believe  the 
text  to  which  I  would  now  lead  your  thought  does  con- 
tain truth  of  God  old  as  the  creation  and  new  as  to-day. 
To  return  to  this  truth,  to  fill  our  cup  from  this  pure, 
deep  word  of  God,  may  refresh  and  invigorate  our  faith 
for  present  trials  and  endeavor. 

In  the  first  place,  this  Scripture  opens  to  us  God's 
living  way  of  making  himself  known  on  earth.     It  is 

now  of  increasing  importance  that  we  should  have  truth- 
2  17 


1 8  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

ful  ideas  concerning  the  way  in  which  God  has  made 
himself  known  to  us.  All  persons  who  read  current 
literature  are  aware  that  the  nature  and  claims  of  the 
Bible  are  now  discussed  with  a  freedom  and  vigor  of 
criticism  such  as  would  hardly  have  been  tolerated  not 
many  years  ago.  Many  are  alarmed  at  this  criticism  of 
the  sacred  book,  and  would  banish  it  as  an  evil  spirit 
of  doubt  from  the  pulpit  and  the  Church.  Whole 
denominations  are  thrown  into  excitement  because,  during 
the  past  year,  certain  of  their  scholars  have  been  calmly 
discussing  in  books  and  in  reviews  the  question  of  the 
Mosaic  origin  of  the  Pentateuch.  One  thing  seems 
certain :  whether  we  will  it  or  not,  the  providence  of 
God  is  ordaining  that  in  our  day  the  Bible  shall  be 
brought  under  a  more  microscopic,  more  exacting,  and 
more  scientific  examination  than  it  has  ever  before 
received  in  the  history  of  the  Church.  Another  thing 
seems  equally  clear  :  although  the  pulpit  should  choose  to 
ignore  this  providential  order  of  religious  inquiry,  it 
cannot  by  any  enforced  silence  keep  the  people  from 
knowledge  of  what  is  transpiring  among  the  thinkers 
and  scholars  of  the  world.  Though  our  youth  may  hear 
nothing  and  learn  nothing  from  the  pulpit  of  such 
inquiries  into  all  sacred  things,  they  will  hear  much,  and 
learn  a  little,  of  these  things  from  the  newspapers,  and  the 
magazines,  and  free  religious  platforms.  They  will  be  in 
danger  of  forming  for  themselves  a  kind  of  scrap-book 
infidelity,  picked  up  from  the  newspaper  odds  and  ends  of 
the  world's  scholarship — an  infidelity  made  up  of  broken 
pieces  of  science,  and  dashes  of  color  from  literature, 
without  unifying  principle  or  consistency  of  substance. 


God's  Self- Revelation   Through  Life.      19 

I  believe  it  was  Aristotle  of  old  who  objected  to  com- 
merce because  foreign  notions  would  corrupt  the  youth 
of  Athens.  The  days,  however,  have  long  gone  by 
when  we  can  keep  out  the  danger  of  doubt  and  unbelief 
by  putting  a  high  ecclesiastical  tariff  on  theological 
importations,  and  protect  domestic  faith  by  laying  an 
embargo  upon  foreign  thought.  If  our  pulpits  cannot 
stand  upon  divine  facts  in  our  human  history ;  if  they 
cannot  stand  upon  what  God  has  done,  calm,  confident 
and  hopeful,  though  knowledge  flows  in  upon  us  like  a 
flood,  and  all  the  breezes  of  discussion  are  astir  around 
us ;  then  no  mere  breakwaters  which  councils  may  try 
to  build  of  customs  and  creeds  can  prevent  us  from 
being  swept  away.  Like  the  house  of  the  Lord's 
parable.  Christian  faith  cannot  be  securely  built  upon  the 
sands  of  human  traditions ;  we  must  go  down,  before  we 
begin  to  build,  to  the  rock  of  divine  fact  in  the  creation 
and  history,  and  upon  that  rock  our  faith  can  stand,  a 
secure  dwelling-place  and  home  for  all  who  enter  in. 

The  Biblical  foundation  of  faith  is  not  the  manner  in 
which  holy  men  of  old  may  have  spoken,  or  the  mode 
of  their  inspiration ;  it  is  the  fact  of  a  divine  revelation 
through  the  history  of  Israel  from  Abraham  to  Christ. 
The  life  was  the  light  of  men.  God^s  way  of  shining 
on  this  earth  has  been  above  all  through  life.  But 
how  ?  By  what  life  ?  The  Bible  gives  the  answer  to 
this  question  :  for  the  Bible  shows  us  God's  actual  way 
with  men  ;  his  way  through  history ;  his  way  of  making 
his  truth  and  his  law  known  through  historical  processes, 
down  a  line  of  chosen  men,  and  in  combinations  of 
events  gathering  around  one  central  event  of  history. 


20  TJie  Reality  of  Faith, 

The  Bible  is  the  record  and  interpretation  of  a  way  of 
creation  and  of  life  which  leads  from  the  promise  of  the 
beginning  on  and  on,  with  a  purpose  never  given  up, 
and  toward  a  goal  never  lost  from  sight,  and  against  all 
human  gravitation  downward  from  its  high  intent,  until 
it  completes  its  course  in  that  one  sinless  life  through 
which  God  shines — the  true  Light — the  Light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  w^orld.  In 
other  words,  God  has  not  made  himself  knoAvn  to  us 
simply  by  talking  with  men  about  his  divinity,  or  by 
inspiring  certain  men  to  write  true  words  about  his  law. 
God  has  been  present  as  a  living  power  in  man's  life,  as 
the  educating  and  redemptive  power  in  Israel,  as  the 
grace  and  truth  of  life  in  Jesus  Christ  who  has  declared 
him.  Such  is  God's  real  self-revelation,  his  life  in  men's 
life,  his  life  in  the  Christ  for  our  life.  Tlie  Bible  is  the 
best  means  we  have,  probably  the  best  means  for  all  pur- 
poses which  we  could  have,  of  knowing  what  God  has 
done  for  us  and  is  for  us.  The  Bible  is  the  means  which 
God  has  himself  provided  for  this  end ;  it  is  sufficient, 
and  is  sufficiently  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  truth,  for  this 
educational  purpose  for  which  God  has  given  it  to  us. 
But  we  need  to  beware  how  we  take  the  means  for  the 
end,  or  mistake  the  form  of  revelation  for  the  substance. 
And  no  mistake  could  at  present  more  imperil  faith  than 
for  us  to  lead  men  to  suppose  that  the  real  revelation 
which  God  has  made  of  his  righteousness  and  grace  in 
the  history  of  redemption  is  identical  with  the  written 
Scriptures,  or  sacred  literature,  which  reflect  that  reve- 
lation ;  or  that  Christianity,  which  results  directly  from 
Christ's  life  and  death,  is  dependent  for  its  existence  in 


God's  Self- Revelation   T/irotigh  Life,      21 

the  world  upon  the  writings  which  the  providence  of 
God  led  the  early  Church  to  gather  from  the  age  of  the 
Apostles  as  the  authentic  records  and  authoritative 
declaration  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  The  life  was  the 
light  of  men  ;  that  was  the  true  Light ;  the  Word  that 
was  with  God  and  was  God.     .. 

Divine  providence,  likewise,  took  thought  of  the 
human  mirrors  which  should  reflect  for  the  world  that 
light.  Moses  and  Isaiah,  John  and  Paul,  prophets  and 
apostles,  were  placed  by  providence  at  proper  distances 
and  stations  to  reflect  for  the  world  the  growing 
revelation — the  light  from  above,  which  at  last  shone 
full  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  the  revelation 
from  God,  and  the  different  reflections  of  it  in  the  several 
Scriptures  from  their  various  angles  and  positions,  are 
not  one  and  the  same  thing.  The  light  from  God  is  one 
thing,  and  the  glass  through  which  we  receive  it  is 
another  thing  ;  and  if  a  flaw  of  Rabbinical  Judaism,  or 
some  error  of  the  scribe  should  be  found  in  the  Old 
Testament  or  the  New,  the  divineness  of  the  real  and 
original  revelation  would  not  in  the  least  be  affected 
thereby.  The  Bible  and  the  Church  are  both  the  results 
of  revelation ;  Christ  stands  above  both  as  their  divine 
original  and  Lord.  The  commonest  illustration  may 
serv^e  to  bring  out  the  fact  which  I  would  insist  upon  as 
now  important  for  faith  to  keep  in  view.  You  have,  let 
me  suppose,  in  your  house  a  genealogical  register  of 
your  family.  The  day  of  your  own  birth  is  recorded. 
You  can  trace  back  your  family-line.  But  you  do  not 
need  the  book  to  prove  that  you  are  here.  You  do  not 
need  the  genealogy  to  show  what  manner  of  man  you 


22  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

are.  Your  life  is  its  own  witness.  You  carry  your 
ancestors  about  with  you ;  their  features  in  your  face ; 
their  ways  in  your  motions.  Though  a  critic,  poring 
over  the  book,  should  discover  some  discrepancies  in  the 
record  of  your  descent,  that  would  not  alter  the  fact  that 
you  were  born  with  certain  family-traits,  and  no  flaw  in 
the  genealogy  can  affect  the  record  which  you  are  making 
by  your  own  life. 

So  Christianity  is  here,  in  this  world,  though  self- 
evidently  not  of  it.  It  has  come  here  to  stay.  It  is  its 
own  evidence.  It  has  also  its  record  and  writing  of 
interpretation.  We  are  assured  by  the  evangelist  of 
the  record  which  God  hath  given  of  his  Son.  A  divine 
life  was  worthy  of  an  inspired  record.  The  Son  of  man 
and  the  Book  of  books  have  both  their  permanent  place 
in  the  providence  of  redeeming  love;  yet  the  divine 
Man  is  before  and  above  the  inspired  book ;  and  there 
may  be  marks  of  the  touch  of  human  fingers  upon  the 
book,  while  no  human  errors  shall  cling  to  the  garments 
of  the  Son  of  God.  The  written  Gospel  is  indeed  worthy 
of  the  God-man.  His  Spirit  is  in  it.  The  immediate 
reflection  of  the  Christ  in  these  Gospels  removes  them 
from  all  possible  classification  with  other  literature ;  as  a 
mirror  with  the  sun  in  it  differs  from  the  glass  before 
which  you  strike  your  little  taper,  so  these  Gospels  differ 
by  the  radiance  of  the  heavens  in  them  from  all  other 
books.  Nevertheless,  our  faith  in  the  real  or  original 
revelation,  in  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels,  does  not  depend 
upon  absolute  flawlessness  in  the  reflecting  glass.  That 
is  a  question  of  fact  for  the  critics.  Let  them  examine 
and  scrutinize  every  point  in  the  whole  Bible  to  their 


God's  Self- Rev elatio7i   Through  Life.      23 

heart's  content ;  we  are  not  anxious  to  dispute  concerning 
the  composition  of  the  mirrors ;  we  are  content  to 
receive  the  light  which,  by  its  own  radiance,  proclaims 
its  celestial  source ;  in  this  light  of  life  we  can  walk, 
rejoicing  as  children  of  the  day. 

I  have  indicated  thus  in  general  the  truth  concerning 
God's  way  of  making  himself  known,  which  may  serve 
to  render  us  both  honest  toward  any  facts  which  may 
ever  be  brought  out  conoerning  the  Bible,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  fearless  in  our  faith  in  the  Word  made  flesh 
which  dwelt  among  us,  and  of  whose  glory  not  the 
chosen  Apostles  only  testify,  but  the  whole  of  Christi- 
anity is  the  perpetual  witness.  I  need  not  stop  to  guard 
this  truth  from  all  possible  misunderstanding  or  abuse, 
but  pass  on  now  to  another  implication  of  our  text. 

Secondly,  this  Scripture  discloses  God's  way  of  illu- 
mining our  lives.  Christ  entering  into  human  life  is  its 
light.  I  wish  to  bring  out  again,  at  this  point,  an  old 
truth — a  truth  of  human  experience  as  old  as  those  days 
long  ago  when  Jesus  first  called  men  to  come  to  him, 
and  they  found  that  he  knew  what  was  in  man,  and  in 
his  presence  they  came  to  their  ot\ti,  best,  truest  selves — 
a  truth  old  as  Jesus'  first  miracle  among  men,  yet  new 
as  the  last-converted  soul — an  old  truth  growing 
newer  and  fresher  as  the  world  becomes  more  Christian 
— ^the  truth  that  the  Christ  from  God  alone  is  equal  to 
all  human  needs ;  the  truth  that  he  only  touches  human 
nature  in  all  its  chords ;  beats  all  life's  music  out ;  lights  up 
all  our  history.  Christianity  alone  is  the  truth  sufficient 
for  the  life  of  the  whole  world.  Christ  renews  man  at 
the  centre,  and  then  throughout  the  whole  circumference 


24  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  his  powers  and  possibilities.  Other  lights  of  human 
kindling  illumine  but  portions  of  our  life,  and  all  go 
out  in  death.  The  life  of  Christ  is  the  light  of  men ; 
and  there  is  no  phase  of  our  nature,  no  need  of  our 
common  humanity,  no  possibility  of  our  love  and  hope, 
>  which  his  life  does  not  embrace  and  purify  and  irradi- 
ate. In  one  word,  Jesus  Christ,  God  with  us  in  our 
life,  is  alone  adequate  to  human  nature.  Shall  I  not 
trust  myself  to  the  life  which  meets,  at  every  point,  my 
life  ?  I  go  along  the  shore  when  the  sun  hangs  a  burn- 
ing ball  in  the  hot  sky,  and  the  tide  is  out.  Suppose  I 
had  come  to  the  shore,  at  that  hour,  the  first  of  mortals 
from  the  inland  country  to  reach  a  continent's  edge, 
knowing  nothing  of  the  daily  pulse-beat  of  the  ocean. 
I  mark  the  winding  shore,  curved  and  broken,  and 
indented,  seemingly  without  law  or  reason.  I  notice  the 
outreaching  cliffs,  and  the  deep  fissures  worn  into  the 
very  face  of  the  rock.  I  see,  also,  the  withering  sea- 
grasses,  and  the  stretches  of  parched  flats.  And  while 
I  stand  and  wonder  what  means  this  ragged  waste,  in 
which  a  continent  comes  to  an  end,  I  hear  the  sound  of 
the  approaching  sea.  I  notice  the  line  of  foam  advanc- 
ing up  the  beach  ;  behold  !  the  great  ocean,  from  all  its 
depths,  goes  forth  to  meet  the  shore ;  the  rising  waters 
eddy  and  play  around  the  headlands  and  over  every 
rock ;  the  sultriness  vanishes  before  the  breeze  that 
comes  riding  in  upon  the  white-crested  waves ;  and,  at 
length,  when  the  tide  is  full,  I  know  how  the  deep 
answers  the  shallows,  and  the  ocean  was  made  to  fit  the 
shore,  and  the  continent  is  comprehended  in  the  fulness 
of  the  waters  in  which  God  caused  the  dry  land  to 


God's  Self- Rev  elation   Throtigh  Life,      25 

appear.  I  know  that  both  sea  and  land  were  fitted  to 
each  other  by  the  same  creative  Power.  I  see  the  same 
perfect  fitness  between  Christianity  and  human  nature. 
Christianity  alone  meets  the  whole  circumference  of 
human  want,  flooding  all  the  shore  of  our  being.  Your 
little  brooks  of  philosophy  are  not  enough  to  cover  a 
single  marsh !  Out  of  the  deep  comes  the  answer  to 
man's  nature.  Christianity  is  the  life — the  returning 
tide  of  life — the  ever  fresh  adaptation,  morning  and 
evening,  of  eternal  truth  and  love  to  the  whole  continent 
of  our  being.  In  him  was  life.  In  him  all  fulness 
dwells.  And  of  his  fulness  have  all  we  received,  and 
grace  for  grace. 

If  we  stand  by  this  text— the  life  was  the  light  of 
men — we  shall  gain  thoroughly  human  ideas  of  what 
the  Gospel,  and  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel,  is  intended 
to  be.  The  real  Gospel  is  God's  life  through  Christ 
touching  our  life  and  making  it  new.  We  do  not 
preach  the  Gospel,  therefore,  if  we  are  content  merely  to 
teach  a  system  of  Biblical  truths.  The  prime  object  of 
this  Bible  is  not  to  make  men  theologians,  but  to  make 
them  Christians,  and  good  Christians.  It  is  not  of  so 
much  importance  that  w^e  should  be  able  to  justify  God's 
w^ays  toward  man,  as  it  is  that  we  should  be  able  to 
-svalk  ourselves  Avith  hearts  right  toward  God,  and  blame- 
less among  men.  God's  eye,  through  the  Bible,  is 
fixed  upon  character.  The  atonement  is  God's  own 
method  of  forgiving  sin,  and  restoring  sinners,  without 
losing  his  eternal  respect  for  character — for  his  own 
righteousness,  and  the  right  living  of  all  the  redeemed. 
We  cannot,  then,  really,  or  in  a  Biblical  way,  preach 


26  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

Christ  crucified,  unless,  all  the  while,  we  keep  our  eye, 
also,  upon  human  conduct  and  character.  We  are  put 
in  charge  of  the  Gospel  of  the  redemption  of  human 
life  and  society.  This  Gospel,  rightly  received,  is  at 
once  the  divinest,  and  the  most  human  thing  imaginable ; 
for  it  is  the  Gospel  of  the  life — God's  life  of  truth  and 
purity,  of  sweetness  and  blessedness,  come  to  earth, 
dwelling  with  man,  the  sufficient  power  and  grace  of 
our  life.  Christianity  is  not  only,  then,  the  most  sacred, 
but  also  the  most  secular  thing  on  earth.  It  has  divine 
right  in  the  midst  of  the  business  of  the  world.  It 
cannot,  without  disloyalty  to  its  divinest  spirit,  be 
divorced  from  the  common  life  of  man,  and  sundered 
from  its  vital  relation  to  the  business,  the  politics,  and 
the  conduct  of  men  in  the  world.  We  are  sometimes 
warned  against  secularizing  overmuch  our  religion.  We 
are  disloyal  to  it  if  we  do  not  seek  to  secularize  it  every 
day  we  live.  Jesus  Christ  brought  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  down  to  the  streets  of  Capernaum.  He  secular- 
ized divinity  when  he  put  from  him  the  ceremonial  of 
the  Pharisees,  and  sat  at  meat  with  publicans  and 
sinners.  God,  who  is  light,  shone  through  his  daily  life 
with  men.  What  the  Church  needs  now  to  do  is  to 
bring  the  Christ,  his  Spirit  and  his  righteousness,  into 
the  streets  and  the  stores,  along  the  lines  of  commerce, 
among  the  interchanges  of  trade,  through  the  actual  rela- 
tions of  society,  around  the  whole  circumference  of 
human  nature  and  human  life.  There  is  not  a  solitary 
question  of  actual  life  and  conduct  before  which  Christ 
is  not  to  be  preached.  And  if  we  do  not  so  confess 
Christ  before  men  by  entering  in  and  possessing  every- 


God's  Self- Revelation   Through  Life.      27 

thing  in  his  name,  then  we  sliall  not  preach  the  real 
historic  Christ,  but  only  a  theological  Christ ;  and  the 
world  is  not  to  be  saved  by  our  doctrine  of  Christ,  but 
by  the  real  presence  of  Christ  bidding  its  passion  be 
still,  casting  out  its  devils,  binding  up  its  broken  hearts, 
and  healing  its  iniquities. 

This  brings  us  directly  to  the  third  and  last  implica- 
tion of  our  text.  Only  through  lives  in  real  sympathy 
with  God  in  Christ  are  we  to  receive  the  light  of  the 
world.  I  spoke  just  now  of  the  theological  Christ. 
I  did  not  mean  that  the  mystery  of  God  in  Christ  is  not 
to  be  the  subject  of  theological  inquiry;  God  forbid 
that,  in  our  pulpits,  the  problems  of  divinity  should  not 
continue  to  be,  as  they  always  have  been,  the  most 
stimulating,  attractive,  nay,  exciting,  subjects  of  rational 
inquiry  and  thought.  Indeed,  the  deep  things  of  God 
lie  ever  beneath  the  surface  of  our  lives.  The  child  will 
drop  his  first  questions  into  them.  We  rock  upon  their 
depths  in  the  midst  of  life's  stress  and  tempest.  In  the 
calmer  evening-time,  old  age,  as  it  nears  the  other  shore, 
still  is  borne  upon  the  depths  of  the  mystery  of  the 
wisdom  of  God.  Every  thoughtful  man  and  woman — 
nay,  every  thoughtless  man  and  woman,  whom  life  lays 
hold  of  with  its  great  mud  of  destiny — is  compelled,  at 
times,  to  turn  theologian,  and  to  think.  To  banish 
theology,  then,  from  our  pulpits  as  not  practical,  would 
be  eventually  to  separate  religion  from  life.  But  what 
I  would  insist  upon  is  this :  not  that  we  must  not  the- 
ologize, but  that  we  are  to  learn  Christian  truth  first  of 
all,  and  best  of  all,  in  that  school  where  Jesus  came  to 
teach  it,  viz.,  the  school  of  real  life.     The  light  must  be 


28  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

struck  for  lis  from  the  life.  Our  best  light  always  is  the 
kindling  of  the  life  into  truth.  It  is  from  the  meeting 
of  God's  life  through  Christ  with  man's  life,  with  our 
own  life,  that  the  light  shines.  You  cannot,  by  any 
possibility,  know  God  in  Christ  simply  by  argument  and 
much  reasoning.  You  can  find  out  in  that  way  only 
how  little  we  know,  and  how  the  circumference  of  the 
mystery  around  us  widens  with  every  increase  of  science. 
Through  life  to  knowledge  is  the  Christian  way.  This 
/  supreme  law  of  knowledge  through  experience,  holds 
both  in  general  of  all  knowledge,  and  in  particular  of 
our  acquaintance  with  those  spiritual  truths  which  are 
most  worth  our  knowing.  Let  one  or  two  particulars 
now  answer  for  all.  You  say, '"''  I  do  not  understand  what 
the  theologians  teach  concerning  the  atonement."  Well, 
you  may  have  listened  to  many  sermons  upon  God's 
chosen  way  of  forgiving  sin,  and,  as  you  confess,  with 
little  profit ;  but  there  is  a  way  of  studying  that  doctrine 
of  the  cross  by  which  God's  method  of  reconciliation 
through  Christ  may  become  light  to  you.  Go,  study 
divine  forgiveness  through  a  real,  persistent,  self-sacri- 
ficing endeavor  to  forgive  some  one  who  has  wronged 
you.  Go,  study  the  means  of  reconciliation  by  seeking 
to  forgive  and  to  forget  the  injury  you  have  suffered. 
Find  out  how  much  must  be  involved  in  the  forgiveness 
of  sin  for  a  perfect  God,  who  has  the  righteousness  of 
the  whole  universe  to  uphold,  by  learning  what  must  be 
suffered — what  must  be  waited  for — what  cannot  be 
done — what  may  be  done,  at  least,  by  unselfish  love,  by 
self-respect  without  self-pride — in  restoring  either  for 
yourself  or   for   some   other  a   broken    human  tie,  in 


God' s  Self- Rev  elation   Through  Life,      29 

reuniting  some  life-relationship  left  sundered  and  bleed- 
ing by  some  cruel  sin.  Depend  upon  it,  in  this  real  way 
of  life  you  will  learn  the  doctrine  of  divine  forgiveness 
as  you  never  knew  it  before. 

And  just  one  more  instance.  How  shall  we  know, 
after  all,  that  this  world  is  not  hollow-hearted — life  fair 
only  on  the  surface,  and  dead  at  heart  ?  Is  all  happi- 
ness superficial — life's  brightness  only  the  moment's 
breaking  into  light,  upon  the  earth's  surface,  of  forces 
that  in  themselves  are  cold  and  dark  as  space;  and 
beneath  the  blooming  surface  again  nothing  but  dust  and 
darkness  ?  Who  of  us  has  not  felt,  at  times,  the  tempta- 
tion to  this  utter  unbelief — nay,  to  this  hunger  of  heart 
after  unfailing  good  and  for  beauty  that  does  not  pass  from 
earth  with  the  setting  of  the  sun  ?  We  believe  in  God ; 
but  who  of  us  has  not  felt,  at  times,  the  chill  of  this 
practical  atheism — doubt  of  good — or,  if  not  doubt,  at 
least  a  certain  heartlessness  for  life — a  silence  within  us 
of  hope — a  certain  daze  and  death  of  feeling  under 
calamity,  or  when  we  stood  dumb  before  death's  cold, 
pitiless  eye  ?  To  continue  in  that  state  would  be  athe- 
ism.    A  life  without  hope  is  a  life  without  God. 

How,  then,  shall  we  know  Him  ?  In  part  the  experi- 
ence of  the  soul-want  of  the  living  God  is  life's  way 
toward  God.  I  had  almost  said  that  this  practical 
experience  of  atheism  is  the  beginning  of  faith.  Yet 
alas  !  not  always  is  it  so ;  for  men  may  fall  back  again 
from  trouble  and  sorrow  into  the  forms  of  life  in  the 
world,  and  not  know  God  who  was  so  near  them.  But 
men  also  often  pass  from  the  discovery  of  their  life's 
emptiness  and  need  out  to  a  faith  in  which  they  can  live. 


30  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

And  this  passing  from  darkness  into  light  must  always  be 
through  right  conduct  and  character.  The  Christ  will 
show  God  to  us  as  not  unto  the  world,  only  as  we  would 
live  not  as  the  world  lives.  Go,  and  follow  Jesus  in  his 
way  of  ministry  among  men,  if  you  would  know  his 
Father  and  your  Father.  As  God  has  come  home  to 
man  through  the  life  of  Christ,  so  we  are  to  draw  near 
unto  God  through  the  Christian  life.  Men  are  never 
atheists  when  they  are  struggling  to  do  some  good  deed 
for  their  fellowmen.  Men  forget  their  unbelief  in  the 
moments  when  they  face  death  for  country,  or  dash 
temptation  from  them  in  the  kingliness  of  conscience. 
Atheists,  if  there  are  any,  are  atheists  in  the  study  with 
their  slippers  on ;  or  upon  the  platform,  in  the  play  of 
reason — not  in  real  life ;  not  in  the  great  sacrifices  of 
duty ;  not  in  the  sublime  hours  of  patriotism  ;  not  in  the 
holy  sanctities  of  life's  first  love ;  not  in  the  moments 
when  we  stop  from  our  own  eager  ambitions  to  bind  up 
some  human  wound,  or  to  make  a  little  child  happy. 
Conscience,  love,  honor,  devotion — these  are  never 
doubters,  never  deniers,  never  without  hope  and  without 
God  !  These  are  the  faithful  believers  in  men's  hearts. 
Our  sins  are  the  atheists  in  our  lives. 

My  text  is  unspeakably  deeper  and  ampler  than  any 
sermon  that  may  be  preached  upon  it.  The  life  is  the 
light.  If  we  will  live  true,  noble,  Christlike  lives, 
doubt  not  God  will  reveal  his  truth  and  his  goodness 
through  them ;  the  endeavor  so  to  live  will  bring  us  to 
Christ  and  the  Father ;  the  Holy  Spirit  will  come  to  us; 
we  shall  find  words  of  God  in  our  lives,  and  at  evening- 
time  it  shall  be  light. 


III. 

ULTIMATES    OF    KNOWLEDGE    AND    BEGIN- 
NINGS   OF    FAITH. 

"^nis  fajt  fenobj  t!)at  ttt  Son  of  (Etoir  is  comt,  anb  f)at!)  ai'brn  us  an 
unlrcrfilanbing,  l^'tt  ixit  ma^  bnoin  f)im  tf)at  is  trut,  anti  fajc  art  in 
f)im  tftat  IS  Iruf,  thm  in  \}is  Son  Itsus  Christ.  ®^ts  is  i\)t  trut 
(KolJ,  ani  tttrnal  lift." — i  John  v.  20. 

I  WISH  to  place  this  text,  which  stands  so  calmly  and  so 
positively  at  the  close  of  this  epistle,  over  against  a  com- 
mon mood  of  men's  minds  at  the  present  time,  of  which 
I  was  reminded  in  a  conversation  with  a  friend  only  the 
other  day.  The  following  tenor  of  remarks  is  true  to 
the  real  state  of  mind  of  many  thoughtful  persons,  and 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  ministers  of  Christ's  Gospel,  so  far 
as  possible,  to  bring  to  the  light  the  real  thoughts  of 
men's  hearts.  That,  at  least,  was  what  Jesus  himself 
was  always  doing.  I  repeat  then  here,  not  the  words 
exactly,  but  the  substance  of  what  more  than  once  I  have 
heard,  as  well  as  felt,  as  follows :  I  do  not  think  life  in 
the  Middle  Ages  was  so  much  inferior  to  life  now ;  I 
could  almost  wish  that  I  had  lived  then  in  those  ages  of 
universal  faith ;  men  knew  then  what  they  were  here 
for,  and  where  they  were  going.  They  were  not  troubled 
with  the  unrest  in  which  we  live,  which  even  Christian 
believers  feel.     I  would  willingly  give  up  railroads  and 

electricity,  and  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  and  all  these  things, 

31 


32  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

if  I  could  escape  these  modern  questionings,  and  have 
again  the  restfulness  of  faith.  If  I  only  knew  that  we 
make  our  bodies,  and  our  bodies  do  not  compose  us ;  if 
I  only  knew  that  there  is  spirit,  and  a  God,  and  immortal 
life ;  if  I  knew  !  And  so  over  against  this  restlessness 
of  mind,  deep  and  earnest,  yet  unquiet  also  as  the  sea, 
over  which  every  passing  wind  has  power,  and  the  spirits 
of  doubt  moan,  I  would  place  this  firm,  exalted  text, 
which  stands  at  the  close  of  a  whole  range  of  sublime 
convictions  :  "  We  know  him  that  is  true,  and  we  are  in 
him  that  is  true,  even  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is 
the  true  God,  and  eternal  life." 

How  can  we  now  reach  such  heights  of  assurance  as 
are  marked  by  these  words  of  St.  John  ? 

The  way  indeed  stands  open  back  to  the  Middle  Ages 
and  their  kind  of  faith  for  any  who  wish  to  follow  it. 
They  have  only  to  join  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 
And  some  have  been  driven  by  the  spirit  of  unrest, 
haunting  modern  life,  back  into  the  medieval  repose  of 
Catholicism.  We  have  no  such  authority  up  to  which, 
when  our  souls  are  frightened,  we  can  run  for  shelter. 
Protestantism,  having  once  let  loose  the  spirit  of  free 
inquiry,  is  bound  to  see  all  questions  of  faith  and  life 
freely  and  honestly  through.  Every  interrogation-point 
which  can  be  raised,  has  a  right  to  stand  up  before  our 
pulpits.  Every  question  of  life  has  a  right  to  come  and 
sit  in  the  pews  of  a  Protestant  Church.  We  must  know 
what  we  believe.  We  must  teach  our  children  no 
obedience  less  noble  than  obedience  to  truth.  Congrega- 
tionalism, least  of  all,  can  have  place  for  any  pope. 

I  shall  proceed,  then,  to  indicate  the  chief  steps  in  a 


Ulthnates  of  Knowledge.  '^7^ 

way  which  leads  toward  the  free  yet  restful  confidence 
of  our  text.  I  shall  give  convictions  and  conclusions 
rather  than  reasonings;  the  arguments  would  fill 
volumes,  but  the  line  of  conclusions  may  be  traced  in  a 
single  sermon.  First  of  all,  we  need  to  go  straight 
through  our  own  experiences,  thoughts,  and  questionings, 
until  we  find  ourselves  facing  the  ultimates  of  our  life 
and  knowledge.  There  are  certain  last  things  of  human 
experience  which  we  may  reach,  and  beyond  which  we 
can  go  no  farther.  These  I  call  ultimates  of  life  and 
knowledge.  Upon  these,  having  done  all,  we  may  stand. 
The  way  for  us  to  faith  cannot  be  the  way  back  to 
medieval  authority,  but  it  is  back  to  these  great  ultimates 
of  the  human  soul  and  human  histor}\  Many  a  young 
man  comes  now^-a-days  to  church,  if  he  comes  at  all,  in 
what  I  may  call  a  state  of  mental  reser\^e ;  and  this 
reserv^ed  state  of  mind,  in  which  many  listen  respectfully 
to  the  Gospel,  is  one  of  the  real  practical  hindrances  to 
clear,  bright  discipleship  at  the  present  time.  It  hinders 
the  progress  of  the  Chm-ch  as  the  fogs  of  late  have 
hindered  navigation.  And  storms  and  breaker  are  not 
always  needed,  only  the  fog  is  enough  oftimes  to  make 
castaways.  Men  in  what  I  have  just  called  this  state  of 
mental  reserve  listen  to  the  great  commandments  of  the 
Gospel, — repent,  believe,  confess  Christ  before  men, — and 
while  not  intentionally  or  deliberately  rejecting  them, 
they  receive  them  and  lose  sight  of  them  in  this  great 
fog-bank  of  mental  uncertainty  which  lies  in  their  minds 
al]  around  the  horizons  of  present  and  near  duties.  Most 
of  these  persons  have  not  studied  very  far  into  religious 
questions ;  many  have  not  cared  to  go  quietly  searcliing 

3 


34  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

through  their  own  uncertainties.  They  simply  sit  back, 
in  comfortable  reserve  from  the  preacher  of  the  duty  of 
a  Christian  profession,  saying  to  themselves,  "I  do  not 
know;  perhaps  I  ought;  but  there  is  now  so  much 
uncertainty  about  everything  that  we  used  to  believe ; 
very  probably  what  the  preacher  says  may  be  so ;  but 
my  friend  the  professor,  or  the  doctor,  or  my  neighbor 
who  is  a  good  deal  of  a  scholar  does  not  believe  these 
things ;  and,  when  I  think  of  it,  there  are  a  great  many 
doctrines  taught  in  the  Bible  which  I  do  not  understand. 
I  keep  up  the  respectable  habits  of  religion.  I  think 
the  churches,  on  the  whole,  are  useful  for  society,  and  I 
do  not  really  want  to  believe  in  nothing.'^  Back,  then, 
let  us  force  ourselves  to  the  ultimates  of  our  life  !  Back 
in  all  honesty  and  urgency  let  us  go,  until  we  face  "  the 
flaming  bounds  of  the  universe  ! ''  Let  us  not  stop  with 
any  disputes  by  the  way,  or  at  any  half-way  resting- 
places.  If  I  can  find  firm  footing  upon  the  ultimate 
facts  of  experience,  then  I  can  look  out  upon  the  sea  of 
religious  contentions,  as  the  man  who  has  gained  the 
shore  looks  back  upon  the  waves.  If  I  have  Apostolic 
standing  upon  the  great  facts  of  God's  work  on  earth,  I 
can  have  also  Apostolic  freedom  and  fearlessness  what- 
ever winds  may  be  astir. 

I  find  four  ultimates,  then,  upon  which  to  stand  ;  four 
fundamentals  of  human  life  and  knowledge  from  which 
to  sui'vey  all  passing  clouds  and  turmoil. 

One  of  these  ultimates — the  one  nearest  to  the  com- 
mon sense  of  mankind,  and  which  I  only  need  to 
mention — is  the  final  fact  that  there  is  some  all-embracing 
Power  in  the  universe.     This  is  the  last  word  which  the 


Ultimatcs  of  Knowledge,  35 

senses,  and  the  science  of  the  senses,  have  to  speak  to  us 
— force.  There  is  one  comprehensive  sum  of  energy, 
one  final  flict  of  force,  in  the  world.  But  when  I  look 
this  physical  ultimate  of  things  in  the  face,  and  ask 
what  it  is,  or  how  I  have  learned  to  give  this  name  of 
power  to  it ;  then  I  find  myself  standing  before  a  second 
ultimate  of  knowledge.  That  is  the  fact  of  intelligence. 
I  cannot,  in  my  thought,  go  before  or  behind  that  last 
fact  of  mind,  and  reason  compels  me  to  go  up  to  it  and 
admit  it ;  there  is  mind  above  matter ;  there  is  intelli- 
gence running  through  things.  Indeed,  the  universe 
seems  to  be  steeped  in  thought.  Everywhere  law  is  a 
fact  of  reason  in  things.  The  more  thoroughly  men 
master  the  nature  of  matter,  the  nearer  they  seem  to 
come  out  into  the  presence  of  something  unseen  and 
spiritual.  I  do  not  intend,  at  this  point,  to  turn  aside 
into  an  argument  with  materialism ;  I  am  simply  assert- 
ing that  as  matter  of  fact,  however  we  may  reason 
about  it,  every  man  of  us  does  believe  in  his  own 
rational  self;  and,  knowing  himself  to  be,  does  find  the 
final  fact  of  intelligence  in  the  nature  of  things.  Upon 
the  shores,  then,  of  this  restless  mystery  of  our  life  are 
standing,  calm  and  eternal,  these  two  ultimates  of  all 
knowledge.  Power  and  Reason,  Intelligence  and  Force ; — 
and  they  stand  bound  together — an  intelligent  Power,  a 
Force  of  Mind  in  things. 

But  there  is  another  line  of  facts  in  our  common 
experience,  the  end  of  which  is  not  reached  in  these 
ultimatcs  of  science  and  philosophy.  There  is  another 
direction  of  human  life  whose  terminus  I  must  seek. 
The  familiar  facts  are  these.     You  and  I  had  not  merely 


2,6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

a  cause  for  our  existence ;  I  had  a  mother,  and  you  had 
before  you  a  fact  of  love  in  the  mother  who  gave  you 
birth.  Your  infancy  was  cradled  in  another  element 
than  the  forces  of  nature,  or  the  protecting  power  of 
some  intelligence.  You  were  cradled  in  love ;  and  that 
love,  which  was  your  mother,  is  a  fact  of  life  as  true  and 
real,  and,  perhaps,  infinitely  deeper  in  its  significance, 
than  anything  you  have  ever  learned  since  through  your 
eyes  from  the  appearance  of  nature.  And  that  fact  of 
love  in  which  you  were  born,  nay,  in  which  the  veriest 
heathen  child  is  born,  is  not  a  passing,  changing,  tem- 
poral thing.  It  is  one  of  the  permanent  facts  of  the 
creation.  It  is  persistent  as  any  force  of  nature.  It  is 
an  elemental  power  of  your  being.  Love  breathes 
through  life,  and  pervades  history.  It  is  the  deathless 
heart  of  our  mortality.  Moreover,  this  fact  of  love  in 
which  our  being  is  cradled,  and  in  which,  as  in  our  true 
element,  man  finds  himself,  has  in  it  law  and  empire. 
It  introduces  into  our  lives  a  commanding  law.  We 
know  the  law  of  love,  and  we  know  it  as  a  law  above 
nature  and  death.  In  obedience  to  this  supreme  author- 
ity men  will  even  dare  to  die.  There  are,  then,  for  us 
such  realities  as  love,  devotion,  duty.  The  child,  grow- 
ing out  of  its  mother's  arms,  finds  that  from  the  bosom 
of  love  it  has  brought  to  life  a  sense  of  duty.  The 
moral  law  becomes  a  felt  omnipresence  to  us.  It  is 
always  with  us,  a  joy  to  us  when  we  do  well,  a  terror  at 
our  hearts  when  we  do  evil.  It  was  before  us  and  shall 
be  after  us.  At  the  end  of  a  large  part  of  our  experi- 
ence stands,  then,  tliis  final  fact  of  moral  law.  Only 
this  is  no  mere  commandment  or  restraint.     It  is  rich 


Ultimate s  of  Knowledge,  2)7 

and  beautiful  aud  bright,  as  well  as  grand  and  com- 
manding. It  is  the  ultimate  of  what  is  best  and  hap- 
piest, as  well  as  dutiful,  in  life.  It  is  the  ultimate  of  all 
the  familiar,  sacred  facts  of  motherhood  and  fatherhood, 
of  obedience  and  trust,  of  helpfulness  and  affection,  of 
all,  in  short,  that  makes  man's  life  worth  living ;  it  is, 
in  one  word,  the  ultimate  law  of  love. 

And  with  this  it  might  seem  as  though  I  had  gone 
around  the  compass  of  our  being,  and  said  all  that  can  be 
said  of  the  last  facts  of  our  lives.  But  I  have  not. 
There  is  another  ultimate  before  which  I  stand.  There 
is  another  last  fact  of  this  world,  which  not  only  cannot 
be  resolved  into  anything  simpler  than  itself,  and  with 
which,  therefore,  we  must  rest,  but  which,  also,  is  itself 
the  truth  abiding  as  the  light  of  day  over  these  funda- 
mental facts  of  our  knoAvledge.  It  is  the  illumination 
of  man's  whole  life.  I  refer,  of  course,  to  the  character 
of  Jesus  Christ.  The  Person  of  the  Christ  is  the  ulti- 
mate fact  of  light  in  the  history  of  man. 

We  cannot  resolve  the  character  of  Jesus  into  anvthino; 
before  itself.  We  cannot  explain  him  by  anything  else 
in  history.  We  cannot  go  beyond  Christ  in  order  to 
understand  him.  He  is  himself,  alone  among  men, 
unique,  original,  most  unlike  man  in  those  very 
moments  and  experiences  when  he  is  also  most  human  ; 
he  is,  in  one  word,  an  ultimate  fact  of  God  in  the  world, 
up  to  which  the  eyes  of  all  the  generations  look,  and 
beyond  whom  we  cannot  go.  Who  shall  declare  his 
generation  ? 

A  few  moments'  reflection  will  suffice  to  make  plain 
how  much  is  meant  in  this  recognition  of  Jesus  Christ  as 


38  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

the  final  fact  not  to  be  explained  by  any  others  in  human 
history.  It  is  easy  enough  to  explain  the  characters  of 
men  like  ourselves.  Our  family-history  gives  an  intel- 
ligible and  sufficient  basis  for  our  personalities.  We 
have  our  ancestors  in  ourselves.  And  we  see  ourselves 
in  our  children.  Now  the  Gospels  give  two  books  of 
the  genealogies  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  are  long  lists  of 
names  carefully  recorded,  as  the  Jews  were  wont  to  do, 
and  running  back  for  generations.  Read  that  family- 
record  book;  as  you  run  down  through  those  names, 
Abraham,  David,  Solomon,  Hezekiah,  Zerubbabel,  and 
the  later  ancestors,  Eliud,  Eleazar,  Matthan,  Joseph, 
would  you  think  you  were  coming  nearer,  do  you  begin 
to  expect  Jesus  who  is  called  Christ?  Who  ever 
thought  of  explaining  the  Son  of  man  by  these  Jewish 
genealogies  ?  The  more  definite  we  make  the  comparison 
between  Jesus  and  men,  the  more  striking  appears  his 
final  unaccountableness  upon  the  ordinary  principles  and 
by  the  common  laws  of  human  descent.  We  can  bring 
all  human  genius  into  organic  line  with  its  ancestry,  or 
into  spiritual  unity  with  its  nationality  or  age.  Take, 
for  example,  our  own  Emerson.  His  was  a  marked 
individual  genius ;  yet  his  biographers  recognize  in  it 
the  flowering  of  several  generations  of  genuine  New 
England  characters.  Emerson's  striking  picture  of  his 
aunt  might  almost  serve  as  a  frontispiece  to  his  own 
life.  Or,  to  go  back  in  history,  Rome  and  the  Caesar 
explain  each  the  other.  Human  nature  in  Greece,  vexed 
by  the  sophists,  must  give  birth  both  to  an  Aristotle  and 
a  Socrates.  These  two  types  of  mind  are  constantly 
reproduced.     And  the  Buddha  is  the  incarnation  of  the 


Ultimates  of  Knowledge.  39 

Oriental  mind.  But  Jesus  is  something  more  than  Judea 
incarnate.  Jesus  is  something  unknown  on  earth  before 
incarnated  in  a  most  human  life.  He  was  in  this  world, 
but  not  of  it.  He  was  the  fulfillment  of  the  history  of 
God  in  Israel,  yet  he  was  not  the  product  of  his  times. 
There  is  something  elemental  about  his  power ;  we  can 
resolve  his  spirit  into  nothing  else.  He  chose  to  call 
himself,  not  a  Hebrew  of  the  HebrcAVS,  not  a  Greek  of 
the  Gentiles,  but  simply  and  solely  the  Son  of  man. 
And  we  can  find  no  better  name  for  him.  He  stands  in 
the  midst  of  history  simply  and  solely  himself — the 
man,  the  Son  of  man.  He  is  for  us  an  ultimate  fact, 
then,  unaccounted  for  by  the  lives  of  other  men, 
unaccountable  except  by  himself;  as  much  as  any  element 
of  nature  is  an  original  thing  not  to  be  explained  by 
anything  else  that  is  made,  so  is  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ  elemental  in  history,  the  ultimate  fact  of  God's 
presence  with  man.  Observe,  I  am  simply  asserting 
now  what  I  believe  to  be  the  solid  fact,  and  I  am  not  at 
present  using  the  tests  and  arguments  by  means  of  which 
it  may  be  made  apparent  that  in  the  character  of  Jesus 
Christ  we  do  reach  a  final  spiritual  fact.  The  reasons  for 
this  belief  might  be  expanded  into  volumes,  but  they  are 
not  necessary  to  one  who  would  look  straight  at  the  last 
realities  of  things.  The  simple  Gospels,  as  we  have  them, 
and  without  any  critical  discussions,  are  sufficient  to  reveal 
a  character  mirrored  in  these  narratives  which  they  did 
not  originate,  any  more  than  the  glass  originates  the  sun 
reflected  in  it.  The  Gospels  themselves,  without  any 
concern  about  who  wrote  them,  or  the  many  problems 
incidentally  suggested  by  them,  are  enough  to  reveal  the 


40  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

presence  in  this  world  of  a  Being  who  was  not  of  this 
world,  and  whom  the  history  of  this  earth  docs  not 
explain.  I  go  farther  and  say,  even  if  you  should  break 
the  Bible  to  pieces,  the  evidence  of  the  ultimate  spiritual 
personality  of  Jesus  the  Christ  would  not  be  destroyed. 
Break  the  glass  to  pieces,  and  you  will  not  rid  yourself 
of  the  evidence  of  the  sun  which  shone  in  it.  Still  every 
fragment  and  bit  of  glass  at  your  feet  will  throw  its 
beam  of  light  up  into  your  eye.  The  critics  cannot 
destroy  the  evidence  of  the  Christ  in  the  Scriptures. 
Neither  does  it  explain  the  light  to  analyze  carefully  the 
glass,  or  to  turn  it  over  and  see  what  is  behind  it.  It  is 
well  to  know  all  we  can  possibly  learn  concerning  the 
way  in  which  the  Bible  came  to  pass,  and  he  is  no  friend 
of  faith  who  would  stop  any  inquisitive  scholar  from  the 
most  thorough  criticism  of  the  Scriptures.  But  the  thing 
which  the  world  has  seen,  and  will  continue  to  behold,  is 
the  light  from  above  in  the  Christ  of  the  Scriptures. 

No  process  of  history,  or  theory  of  the  Bible,  or 
knowledge  of  the  motley  times  in  which  Jesus  came 
preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  does 
account  for  the  person,  or  comprehend  the  work  of  Jesus 
Christ.  And  Christianity,  the  ever  present  Scrij)ture  of 
Christ's  life  and  power,  itself  is  the  evidence  still  before 
our  eyes  of  his  Person  and  presence,  even  as  the  first  dis- 
ciples beheld  it,  and  marvelled,  and  worshipped  before  him. 

If  any  one  wishes  to  examine  further  into  this  matter, 
and  to  convince  himself  whether  this  indeed  be  so,  let  me 
make  to  him  one  suggestion.  Begin  anew  the  study  of 
Jesus'  character  with  the  aspects  of  it  which  come  nearest 
to  us  and  are  most  familiar  to  your  own  experience  of 


Ultimate s  of  Knozvledge.  41 

men.  Begin  not  by  looking  away  to  the  heights  of 
his  mystery  of  being,  but  with  the  lesser  scenes  and 
minor  incidents  of  his  life — the  easier  slopes  and  lower 
levels  of  his  greatness.  Let  the  miracles  pass  at  first. 
Leave  out  of  thought  for  the  moment  the  narratives  of 
the  nativity,  and  the  resurrection ;  approach  Christ  in 
the  midst  of  his  daily  intercourse,  in  the  most  common 
and  human  incidents  of  his  work.  You  will  find  some- 
thing you  never  found  before  even  in  those.  You  will 
see  something  never  seen  on  earth  before  even  in  those. 
The  minor  characteristics  of  Jesus  are  impressed  with 
divinity.  The  little  things  of  his  human  friendships  are 
not  of  this  world.  The  more  imitable  features  of  his 
character  have  still  upon  them  a  heavenly  light.  In  his 
nearest  approach  to  the  common  levels  of  our  lives  Jesus 
is  still  more  than  man. 

If  we  begin  thus  with  the  minor  characteristics  and 
little  daily  things  of  Jesus'  life,  and  find  even  in  these 
something  beyond  us  all;  then  when  w^e  read  of  the 
miracles,  they  seem  to  fall  into  harmony  with  the  man 
and  his  power ;  and  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  his  life, 
which  are  contrary  to  all  our  experience  of  other  men, 
seem  to  be  perfectly  in  accordance  with  our  experience  of 
Jesus  himself.  So  his  whole  life  from  beginning  to  end 
seems  to  be  a  harmony  of  God  with  men.  It  is  a  higher 
evolution  than  our  lives.  It  can  be  understood  only  by 
itself.  It  is  the  final  fact,  the  moral  and  spiritual 
ultimate  of  human  history. 

Now,  then,  such  being  the  fundamental  facts  of  our 
knowledge — the  ultimates  of  human  experience — it  is 
perfectly  legitimate  for  us  to  build  upon  them ;  and  any 


42  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

man  wlio  wishes  to  build  his  life  upon  the  rock,  and  not 
upon  the  sands,  will  build  upon  them.     A  Power  not 
ourselves  upon  which  we  are  dependent, — a  first  intel- 
ligence and  love,  source  of  all  our  reason  and  life  of  our 
heart, — and  Jesus  Christ,  the  final  proof  of  God  with  us 
and  for  us, — such  are  the  elemental  realities  upon  which 
our  souls  should  rest.     He  who  stands  upon  these  divine 
facts  in  the  creation  and  in  history  shall  not  be  con- 
founded.    I  know  what  it  is  to  feel  the  foundations  of 
all  things  sacred  and  true  slipping  from  beneath  one's 
feet.     Who  that  has  lived  since  the  fathers  fell  asleep 
has  not  known  this?     Who  has  not  had  moments  at 
least  of  longing  for  the  assurance  of  faith  ?     Happy  are 
we,  if  we  have  learned  what  are  the  fundamentals  of  our 
life ;    what    are   the    true    beginnings   of    knowledge ! 
Happy,  if  we  have  learned  the  lesson  at  once  of  humility, 
of  wisdom,  and  of  faith,  and  can  plant  our  feet  upon  the 
firm,  primal,  divine  facts  of  things,  even  while  we  are 
learning  that  we  often  do  not  understand,  and  can  not 
answer  life's  daily  question  :  How  can  these  things  be  ? 
And  it  is  our  duty  not  to  be  driven  from  the  elemental 
facts  of  God  and  Christ  in  the  creation  and  in  history 
simply  by  our  vain  imaginations  as  to  how  these  things 
can  be.     My  friends,  the  real  difficulty  with  your  faith 
and  mine  is  usually  not,  as  we  are  pleased  to  say,  with 
our  superior  reasons,  or  our  wise  understandings ;  it  is 
with  our  imaginations.     It  is  not  because  men  can  reason 
God  out  of  his  own  universe  successfully,  but  because 
they  cannot  imagine  what  God  is,  and  is  like,  can  give 
him  no  form  and  mode  of  being  in  their  thoughts,  that 
they  can  ever  teach  themselves  to  deny  God's  existence. 


Ultimate s  of  Knowledge.  43 

No  one  would  ever  think  of  denying  there  is  a  God,  if 
he  could  only  imagine  what  God  is  like.  It  is  not 
because  nature  in  our  hearts  does  not  believe  in  our  own 
immortality,  but  because  we  cannot  conceive  of  the  man- 
ner of  existence  after  death,  that  we  are  content  to 
live  as  though  this  little  bustle  of  a  world  were  all  of 
God's  good  providence  for  us.  It  is  because  it  doth  not 
yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,  that  we  doubt  the  future, 
and  live  as  though  this  present  w^ere  all.  It  is  not  the 
human  reason,  but  the  imagination,  w^hich  is  the  sceptic. 
Hence,  then,  if  we  would  reach  something  of  John's 
assurance — this  is  the  true  God  and  eternal  life — we  must 
give  heed  to  the  word  of  warning  which  seems  at  first 
thought  to  stand  disconnected  from  the  rest  of  this  text, 
but  which  is  very  necessary  to  it :  Little  children,  keep 
yourselves  from  idols.  That  means  for  us, — You,  who 
in  the  childlike  spirit  do  rest  upon  these  constant,  home- 
like facts  of  God  and  Christ  wdth  men,  keep  yourselves 
from  all  vain  forms  and  imaginations  of  your  hearts. 
It  is  of  the  essence  of  idolatry  really  to  lose  faith  in 
the  endeavor  to  give  form  and  imagined  substance  to 
things  unseen  and  eternal.  The  heathen  idolatry  was 
one  foolish  imagination  of  divine  things.  ^lan  betrayed 
his  own  spiritual  faith  by  trying  to  give  it  visible  form. 
The  idols  were  often  sensual  and  gross  imaginations  of 
God.  So  faith  died  at  its  own  altars.  Little  children, 
keep  yourselves  from  idols.  Plant  your  feet  upon  the 
fundamental  facts  of  God  and  the  Gospel ;  do  not  lose 
your  faith  in  trying  to  give  the  unseen  realities  form 
and  shape  in  your  own  vain  imaginations.  We  know 
that  the  divine  essentials  are ;  we  do  not,  and  cannot  con- 


44  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

ceive  how  they  are.  Over  against  Nicodemiis'  question, 
How  ?  Jesus  put  simply  his  spiritual  affirmations  that 
these  spiritual  births,  and  these  heavenly  truths,  must  be 
and  are.  We  do  knoAV  the  divine  elements  of  our  life 
and  history,  and  our  immortality,  though  no  master 
among  us  can  tell  us  how  these  things  can  be.  Still 
Jesus  stands  before  us  answering  life's  every  question 
with  his  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you."  There  may 
be  some  man  here  who  is  kept  from  his  own  proper  faith 
in  the  divine  assertions  of  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  simply  because  he  cannot  free  himself  from  the 
difficulties  of  his  own  imagination,  and  is  not  willing  to 
believe  in  realities,  in  the  most  fundamental  and  final 
realities  of  experience,  because  they  refuse  to  take  form 
and  visibility  to  his  understanding.  He  will  believe 
in  God  when  he  can  see  him  like  an  idol.  He  will 
believe  in  his  own  soul  when  he  can  fashion  a  mode  of 
understanding  it.  He  will  act  upon  his  own  immor- 
tality when  he  can  grasp  some  tangible  conception  of  it. 
When  men  say  they  will  believe  what  they  can  under- 
stand, they  may  mean, — we  would  believe  if  we  had  some 
forms  or  idols  upon  which  our  faith  could  lay  hands. 
"  This  is  the  true  God  and  eternal  life ;  little  children, 
keep  yourselves  from  idols," — from  the  idols  of  our  own 
desires ;  from  the  idols  of  our  own  imaginations ;  from 
the  idols  of  tradition  and  the  schools.  We  need  now  for 
our  own  faith,  and  for  the  salvation  of  the  faith  of  the 
world  a  theology  without  idols  ;  a  Church  without  idols ; 
and  everywhere  among  Christians  a  childlikeness  of 
heart  before  God,  kept  from  the  love  of  the  fashion  and 
forms  of  this  world,  which  is  idolatry. 


IV. 

THE  DIFFICULTY  OF  NOT   BELIEVING. 

"  But  noto,  after  tf)at  ^t  f)ab£  knoban  (Gco&,  or  rather  an  knoboii  o£ 
(GcoiJ,  |)oh]  turn  jt  a^ain  to  i))t  iutak  anil  ifjgjgarb  tkmfntjj,  iot^nunto  2* 
i)£sin  acjain  to  it  in  ionbajgt?  " — Gal.  iv.  9. 

I  HAVE  been  thinking  how  difficult  it  would  be  for  us 
not  to  be  Christians.  It  is  hard,  w^e  say,  to  have  faith ; 
but  do  we  realize  what  a  task  a  man  imposes  upon  him- 
self if  he  attempts  to  live  without  faith?  I  know  a 
man  who  commenced  deliberately  to  unload  himself,  as 
he  expressed  it,  of  the  beliefs  which  he  had  accumulated 
in  his  education.  One  belief  after  another  he  threw 
overboard.  He  sought  to  rid  himself  of  everything 
which  did  not  seem  to  him  necessary  to  his  very  life. 
At  last  he  came  to  one  belief  where  he  was  convinced 
that  he  must  stop.  He  must  have  a  God.  To  abandon 
tliat  faith  would  have  been  to  him,  not  throwing  over 
the  cargo,  but  giving  up  the  ship.  That  one  belief  he 
kept  because  it  seemed  to  him  to  belong  to  the  make  of 
his  own  soul.  To  have  gone  beyond  that  point  in  divest- 
ing himself  of  his  inherited  beliefs  would  have  been  to 
tear  out  an  integral  pai-t  of  himself.  Is  it  really  possible 
for  any  sincere  man  to  live  life  through  without  reach- 
ing some  point  beyond  which  unbelief  would  be  not 
merely  the  giving  up  another  belief,  but  a  cutting  into 
the    quick    of   the   soul?      Is    not  some  faith  one  of 

45 


46  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

the  first  vital  necessities  of  the  human  reason  and 
heart? 

I  wish,  then,  this  morning,  to  invert  a  very  common 
way  of  reasoning  about  religion  among  men.  Instead 
of  treating  a  religious  faith  as  though  it  were  a  good 
thing  to  be  added  to  a  man's  moral  capital  in  life,  I 
would  raise  the  question  rather,  whether  a  man  will  have 
capital  enough  for  life  left  if  he  lets  a  Christian  faith  go 
from  him  ?  Instead  of  dwelling  upon  the  difficulties  in 
the  way  of  a  positive  Christian  faith,  I  would  consider 
whether  we  shall  not  have  to  believe  a  great  many  things 
hard  to  receive,  if  we  do  not  trust  the  Lord  Jesus? 
Men  of  the  w^orld  will  sometimes  say  to  devout  Chris- 
tians, "  We  cannot  believe  so  many  things  as  you  do ;  we 
do  not  know  about  these  matters  of  faith/'  I  want  to 
reverse  the  process,  and  to  show  how  many  things  very 
hard  to  credit  one  must  believe  in  order  not  to  be  a 
Christian. 

In  reversing  thus  the  ordinary  reasoning  of  men  with 
regard  to  the  truths  of  religion,  we  follow  the  direction 
of  the  question  which  the  Apostle  Paul  put  to  the  Gala- 
tians.  Evidently  it  seemed  the  strangest  thing  in  the 
world  to  him  that  any  persons  to  whom  Christ  had 
been  preached,  could  think  of  living  on  this  earth,  from 
which  Jesus  had  ascended,  without  a  Christian  faith. 
The  hardest  thing  for  the  Apostle  was,  not  to  keep  his 
faith  in  the  risen  Lord,  but  to  conceive  how  any  one  to 
whom  the  Gospel  had  come,  should  ever  dream  of  doing 
again  without  it.  He  asks  the  Galatians,  in  sincere 
astonishment :  But  now  that  ye  have  come  to  know  God, 
or  rather  to  be  known  of  God,  how  turn  ye  back  again 


TJie  Diffiadty  of  not  Believing.  47 

to  the  weak  and  beggarly  rudiments  whereunto  ye  desire 
to  be  in  bondage  over  again  ? 

Let  us  consider  how  many  vital  things  a  man  must 
give  up  in  order  not  to  be  a  Christian,  first,  in  regard  to 
faith  in  general,  and  then,  more  particularly,  with  regard 
to  some  of  the  chief  elements  of  the  Christian  life. 

First,  in  order  not  to  have  faith,  one  must 
vacate  a  considerable  portion  of  his  own  mental  experi- 
ence. There  is  a  large  part  of  every  man's  self- 
consciousness  which  is  bound  up  w^ith  faith  in  realities 
beyond  this  present  world  of  sights  and  somids.  It 
would  be  almost  an  impossible  task  for  us  to  disentangle 
all  faith  in  things  divine  and  eternal  from  the  elements 
of  our  self-consciousness.  Our  reasons  have  their  roots 
in  the  divine.  If  these  primal  beliefs  in  God  and 
immortality  were  simply  results  of  argument,  we  might 
reason  ourselves  out  of  them ;  but  they  are  elements, 
rather,  of  our  rational  and  conscious  life,  so  that  we  can- 
not separate  them  wholly  from  ourselves.  i^theists, 
after  all,  can  only  make  believe  not  to  believe.  These 
elementary  spiritual  faiths  are  not  colors  laid  on  our 
life ;  they  are  among  the  threads  of  w  hich  life  itself  is 
woven,  inseparable  from  our  self-consciousness.  The 
man,  therefore,  who  proposes  not  to  have  any  faith,  sets 
before  himself  the  difficult  task  of  unraveling  his  own 
life,  and  unmaking  his  own  rational  soul.  Equally 
difficult  would  it  prove  for  any  man  to  make  good,  in 
his  own  mind,  the  boast  which  shallow  men  sometimes 
utter,  "  I  will  believe  only  what  I  can  understand." 
As  matter  of  fact  every  man  does  believe  vastly  more 
than  he,  or  any  one  else  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  ever 


48  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

understood.  You  believe  in  oxygen,  hydrogen,  electricity, 
and  the  ultimate  particles  and  forces  of  matter.  You 
do  not  understand  them  any  more  than  you  understand 
what  the  wings  of  angels  may  be  made  of.  All  thought, 
after  a  few  scientific  measurements  and  experimental 
steps,  leads  straight  out  into  the  divine  and  eternal 
mystery  in  which  our  whole  world  of  knowledge  lies 
ensphered.  Every  man  carries  about  in  himself  a  world 
of  being  which  he  knoAVS  but  in  part.  The  common 
principles  upon  which  men  act  every  day  in  their  busi- 
ness and  their  pleasures,  spring  directly  out  of  some 
mental  or  moral  fact  which  we  take  for  granted.  No 
man  can  walk  down  to  his  office  in  the  morning  without 
believing,  at  least,  in  a  creed  as  long  as  this :  I  have 
the  power  to  will  that  I  will  go ;  I  have  power  so  to 
co-ordinate  my  intangible  thoughts  and  desires  with 
certain  so-called  nerve-currents,  and  a  whole  scheme  and 
mechanism  of  physical  forces,  that  I  shall  find  myself 
walking,  not  at  hap-hazard,  but  in  a  self-determined 
course,  to  the  destination  which  I  saw  in  my  mind  when 
I  proposed  to  myself  to  start.  And  all  this  is  a  creed  a 
great  deal  longer  than  any  of  us  understand.  Yet  you 
walk  by  it,  and  do  your  business  by  it.  Think,  also,  of 
those  larger,  outlying  regions  of  our  mental  conscious- 
ness— those  great  shadow-lands  out  of  which  our  con- 
scious thoughts  and  feelings  emerge.  Our  best  thoughts, 
which  minister  most  to  our  life  and  love,  come  to  us 
like  the  angels  that  appeared  by  the  patriarch's  tent — we 
know  not  from  whence  or  how ;  we  know  only  that  they 
are  with  us,  and  in  their  conversation  life  seems  a  holy 
and  a  happy  thing.     Men  say  they  will  conduct  their 


The  Dijficidty  of  not  Believing,  49 

lives  only  under  the  light  of  perfectly  comprehensible 
and  clear  ideas.  Very  well ;  but  that  portion  of  your 
thoughts  which  to  you  is  clear  as  noon-day,  like  the 
noon-day,  has  also  before  it,  and  after  it,  its  morning 
and  its  evening — its  hour  of  dim,  uncertain  dawn,  and 
its  setting  again  in  the  universal  mystery.  I  say,  then, 
not  to  delay  longer  with  illustrations  of  this  point,  that 
a  man  who  tries  to  sail  across  this  life  to  the  other 
unknown  shore  without  faith  has  a  much  more  serious 
task  to  perform  upon  himself  than  simply  to  unload 
himself  of  so  many  accumulated  beliefs  ;  he  may  throw 
overboard  human  traditions,  but  to  get  rid  of  faith  he 
cannot  stop  with  the  cargo ;  he  will  have  to  hew  at  the 
knees  of  the  ship ;  in  fact,  he  will  have  to  take  out  the 
keel :  for  all  our  knowledge,  and  all  our  life,  so  richly 
furnished,  are  built  up  on  faith,  as  the  ship  is  built  into 
the  keel. 

There  is  another  tremendously  present  thing  which 
would  have  to  be  put  away  from  us  in  order  that  we 
might  be  able  to  live  without  faith,  and  that  is  the 
divine  imperative  of  conscience.  Something  higher  and 
better  than  we  lays  hold  of  us  in  conscience.  This 
visible  world,  with  its  present  kingdoms,  vanishes  before 
the  invisible  majesty  of  conscience.  Though  men  mock 
conscience,  and  put  it  in  chains,  and  leave  it  dishonored 
and  forgotten  in  darkness,  they  are  not  safe  from  it ;  it 
will  prove  "  a  moral  Samson ; "  and,  while  they  make 
merry  and  feast,  its  hour  shall  surely  come,  and  con- 
science, derided  and  put  to  shame,  shall  prove  its 
strength,  and  triumph  in  the  ruins  of  the  evil  soul. 

There  are  several  other  vital  elements  which  must  be 

4 


50  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

sacrificed  in  the  vain  effort  to  live  without  faith.  One 
will  have  to  leave  out  some  of  the  most  marked  experi- 
ences of  his  life.  The  simple  fact  is,  that  the  invisible 
powers  are  constantly  laying  hold  of  the  life  of  man  in 
the  world.  It  would  be  an  impossible  task  for  us  to 
account  wholly  for  our  own  lives  simply  and  solely  upon 
natural  causes.  Super-sensible  influences  do  mingle  and 
blend  with  the  sensible;  providences  are  realities  of 
human  experience.  Often  we  may  have  been  able  to 
single  out  and  account  for  the  several  natural  agencies 
in  some  affair  of  our  own  lives;  we  can  name  and 
number  the  agents  who  brought  about  the  event ;  but 
w^ho  brought  the  agents  together  ?  What  directing  good- 
ness combined  their  action  in  our  behalf?  Who  has 
timedy  often  so  happily  for  us,  the  events  of  our  lives  ? 
The  mechanism  of  the  clock  accounts  for  everything 
except  the  time  it  keeps.  Who  has  regulated  its 
motions  ?  Who  has  set  its  hands  tos^ether  on  the  hour  ? 
Who  has  timed  the  clock?  There  is  signal  proof  of 
providence  in  our  lives  in  the  frequent  happy  timing  of 
events  for  us.  So  our  whole  human  history  was  timed 
for  the  hour  of  the  Christ.  Nature  may  have  been  set 
to  strike  the  alarm  of  miracles  at  the  appointed  hour  of 
Christ's  advent.  At  least  history  throughout  has  been 
timed  to  redemption.  A  man,  then,  must  believe  that 
these  providential  times  and  seasons  in  his  own  life,  as 
well  as  upon  the  larger  scale  of  history,  are  accidental 
and  meaningless,  if  he  is  to  have  any  success  in  the 
attempt  not  to  have  faith  like  a  Christian.  Then,  again, 
although  one  succeeds  for  a  while  in  letting  all  these 
things  go  from  his  thoughts,  the  powers  of  the  world 


The  Difficulty  of  not  Believing,  51 

to  come  will  quietly  lie  in  wait  for  him,  and  suddenly, 
perhaps,  break  in  upon  his  life.  It  may  be  all  going 
smoothly  with  him ;  he  need  take  no  thought  of  the 
other  world  around  this  little  visible  earth  ;  his  mind  is 
wholly  in  his  business,  and  he  is  forgetting  all  of  him- 
self that  cannot  be  turned  into  dollars  and  cents ;  but, 
unexpectedly,  a  great  chasm  opens  in  his  pleasant  path. 
The  little  child  running  before  him  has  disappeared  in 
death's  unutterable  void ;  the  Avife  walking  his  smooth 
life  with  him  is  no  more  by  his  side.  Death  is  a 
sudden  breaking  of  the  world  to  come  in  upon  this 
present  world.  A  man  may  possibly  look  upon  the  face 
of  death  without  feeling  one  throb  of  faith ;  but  to  do 
that  he  must  stop  the  beating  of  his  own  heart. 

To  go  on  through  life  beside  that  chasm  of  death, 
walking  alone  henceforth  along  the  brink  of  that  preci- 
pice, where  the  life  which  yesterday  went  hand  in  hand 
with  ours  suddenly  disappeared,  and  was  lost, — how  can 
we  live  with  this  silence  and  depth  of  death's  mystery 
ever  at  our  right  hand,  unless  we  can  walk  by  faith  ? — 
unless  we  believe  in  a  life  beyond  the  mystery  and  the 
silence,  into  which  the  soul  of  man,  full  of  forces  of 
thought  and  love,  vanishes,  dropping  its  garment  of 
mortality  only  in  the  path  at  our  feet  ?  Our  souls,  also, 
some  day,  shall  take  wing  and  fly  away. 

There  is  another  side  of  our  experience,  which  I  will 
just  mention,  from  which  one  must  cut  himself  loose,  if 
he  would  have  any  success  in  not  belonging  to  a  Christian 
world ;  he  must  break  off  his  fellowship  with  the  truest 
and  best  life  of  humanity.  The  fact  here  in  point  is, 
that  very  much  as  we  are  born  into  a  human  society,  and 


52  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

have  the  birthright  of  citizenship  in  our  country ;  so  we 
are  born  also  into  a  kingdom  of  souls,  and  have  a  higher 
citizenship  in  the  spiritual  realm.  The  history  of  man 
is  not  merely,  nor  chiefly,  political ;  it  is  religious.  The 
history  of  the  kingdom  of  redemption  is  the  paramount 
part  of  human  history.  Other  history,  what  we  call 
profane  history,  is  the  form  and  shaping  of  events  only ; 
the  substance  of  history  is  its  spiritual  progress ;  the 
issue  of  it,  and  the  main  thing  in  it  all  along,  is  redemp- 
tion. If,  then,  one  wants  not  to  be  a  Christian  believer, 
a  citizen  of  a  world  becoming  Christian,  he  will  have  to 
begin  by  denying  himself  a  goodly  fellowship.  The 
worldling  will  be  obliged  to  keep  his  little  venture  of  a 
life  close  to  the  material  side,  this  tangible  shore  of 
things,  in  the  shallow  eddies  and  side-currents,  not  out 
in  the  deeper  currents  of  events,  in  the  main  movement 
of  history,  where  go  the  strong  and  the  noble  who  have 
committed  their  lives  wholly  to  God's  purpose  which 
beneath  all  flows  steadily  on  toward  the  fulness  of  the 
eternal  redemption.  Not  to  let  one's  self  be  carried  on 
by  a  Christian  faith  is  to  throw  one's  life  out  of  the  best 
and  purest,  and  the  most  powerful  sympathy  and  life  of 
humanity.  One  must  deny  the  brightest  and  happiest 
side  of  this  present  world  if  he  would  deny  the  Christian 
faith  of  the  world. 

Let  us  consider  further  how  much  one  will  have  to 
believe  in  order  not  to  be  a  Christian,  in  relation  to 
some  particulars  of  the  Christian  life.  One  vital  element 
of  the  Christian  life  is  trust  in  the  goodness  of  the 
heavenly  Father.  AYe  do  not  conceal  from  ourselves, 
we  cannot,  that  this  is  a  trust  written  often  across  the 


The  Difficulty  of  7iot  Believing.  53 

face  of  events  in  our  lives  which  seem  to  contradict 
it.  As  Christians  we  believe  in  the  sunny  side,  that  is, 
in  the  divine  side,  of  everything.  We  say  it  is  only  our 
present  position  in  the  shadow,  or  under  some  cloud, 
which  prevents  our  seeing  tlie  bright  and  eternal  side  of 
it.     Wait,  and  we  shall  see  the  goodness  of  the  Lord. 

We  were  sailing  one  afternoon  with  the  broken  coast  of 
Maine  in  the  distance  projecting  upon  our  horizon.  A 
black  thunder-cloud  gathered  in  shore  over  the  hill-tops. 
We  could  see  the  play  of  the  lightnings,  and  tlie  waters 
breaking  from  the  cloud.  That  was  all  that  the  villagers 
and  tlie  fishermen  along  the  shore  could  have  seen.  But 
we,  at  our  distance,  beheld  also  the  untroubled  sun  in  the 
clear  sky  above ;  its  beams  struck  the  edges  of  that  heavy 
mass  of  vapors,  and  above  the  darkness  and  the  light- 
nings we  could  see  the  upper  side  of  the  cloud  turn  to 
gold ;  and,  even  while  it  was  blackness  and  fear  to  those 
below,  its  pinnacles  and  towers  were  shining  before  our 
eyes  like  the  city  of  God  descending  from  heaven.  Thus 
Christian  faith  beholds  also  the  heavenly  side  of  this 
world's  storm  and  darkness.  You  tell  me  it  is  hard  to 
keep  such  faith.  Yes,  it  is  hard.  There  must  be  the 
victory  of  faith  overcoming  the  world.  But  did  you 
ever  sit  down  and  recount  what  hard  things  you  must 
believe,  and  how  many,  in  order  not  to  have  anything 
of  Jesus'  faith  in  the  Father  ?  Have  you  ever  counted 
the  cost  of  the  sacrifice  which  you  must  make  to  give  up 
even  the  little  faith  of  a  disciple  ?  Think  of  it.  In 
order  not  to  believe  in  the  goodness  of  God,  you  must 
begin  by  believing  against  every  instinct  of  life  and  health 
in  you  that  it  would  have  been  better  for  you  never  to 


54  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

liave  been  born  ;  that  the  first  glad  laughter  of  childliood 
is  false  to  the  heart  of  things ;  that  every  ray  of  joy 
which  may  have  come  to  earth  is  meaningless  and  vain ; 
that  human  happiness  is  an  exquisite  mockery  of  malevo- 
lence devised  to  make  us  in  the  end  more  conscious  of 
misery ;  that  man  was  made  for  sickness,  and  health  is 
the  accident ;  that  life  was  invented  on  purpose  for  the 
pain  of  death ;  that  the  most  noble  powers  of  the  mind 
are  the  most  ingenious  devices  of  the  adversary ;  that 
memory  was  contrived  as  an  instrument  of  human  torture ; 
that  imagination  has  its  highest  use  in  bringing  us  all 
our  lives  under  the  bondage  of  fear ;  that  our  human 
hearts,  in  short,  were  made  capable  of  love  and  the  pure 
delights  of  unselfish  friendship,  simply  that  by  means  of 
them  death  might  torment  us ;  and  that  all  this  world 
of  beauty  wears  every  fresh  morning  an  expression  of 
happiness,  and  at  evening  a  smile  of  peace,  only  that  those 
who  come  nearest  nature's  heart  may  be  of  all  men  the 
most  deceived  and  the  most  miserable  !  These  things, 
and  more  like  these,  a  man  must  believe,  if  he  would 
not  cherish  the  faith  of  Jesus  in  our  heavenly  Father. 

Take  as  another  instance  the  Christian  belief  in  our 
personal  sinfulness  and  need  of  forgiveness.  How  many 
thoughts  of  the  heart  must  one  forget  not  to  believe  that? 
Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  us,  God  is  greater  than  our 
heart,  and  knoweth  all  things.  He  who  makes  light  of 
the  fact  of  sin,  who  seeks  to  empty  of  its  convincing  power 
our  heart-consciousness  of  sin,  may  ask  us  to  believe  any- 
thing else  that  he  pleases ;  for  if  a  man  can  really  believe 
that  he  is  sinless,  and  in  no  need  of  a  divine  forgiveness 
and  help,  nothing  else  could  be  difficult  for  him  to  credit. 


The  Difficulty  of  not  Believing.  55 

I  pass  to  two  other  examples.  Men  say  it  is  hard 
to  believe  iu  an  atonement.  Perhaps  it  may  be  in 
some  of  our  human  philosophies  of  God's  method  of 
reconciling  the  world;  but  not  to  believe  in  Jesus' 
word  that  the  Son  of  man  has  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sin,  would  require  us  to  believe  some  things 
about  God  which  it  would  be  very  hard  for  us  to  hold 
of  the  Creator  of  our  hearts.  Even  a  human  govern- 
ment would  be  incomplete  unless,  in  some  hand,  there 
should  be  lodged  some  power  of  pardon.  Not  to  believe 
in  the  authority  of  God  himself  over  the  execution  of 
his  own  law  is  to  believe  that  God's  government  is  not 
so  perfect  as  man's.  Or,  to  take  the  subject  up  to  a 
higher  plane,  where  I  much  prefer  to  study  it,  our  human 
love  can  sometimes  find  for  itself  a  way  of  forgiveness 
which  it  will  follow  without  dimming  its  own  purity,  or 
losing  its  own  self-respect,  though  it  be  for  it  a  way  of 
tears.  To  believe,  then,  that  the  God  of  love  can  find 
no  way  of  atonement  for  sin,  though  it  be  the  way  of 
the  Cross,  is  to  believe  that  man's  heart  is  diviner  than 
God's.  Yes,  to  recognize  and  praise  human  charity, 
forgiveness,  and  grace;  to  own  the  power  of  human 
love  to  raise  the  fallen,  and  to  give  the  life  of  the  strong 
and  the  pure  for  the  sinful  and  the  weak ;  and  then  not 
to  believe  that  God  can  do  the  same,  and  will,  and  that, 
not  after  the  measure  of  our  human  imperfection,  but 
according  to  his  infinite  goodness,  and  in  his  own 
perfect  and  complete  way  of  the  Cross — this  faith,  I  say, 
in  man's  power  of  forgiveness,  together  with  such  faith- 
lessness in  God's  work  of  forgiving  the  sin  of  the  world, 
is  an  inconsistency  of  moral  reasoning  and  a  denial  of 


56  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

all  divine  revelation.  But  he  who  will  not  believe  in 
the  Gospel  of  forgiveness,  if  he  believes  at  all  in  God, 
must  set  himself  to  solve  this  contradiction — he  gives 
up  a  Christian  faith  only  to  take  upon  himself  a  belief 
about  God  too  monstrous  for  the  human  heart  to  keep. 

The  other  remaining  point  which  I  Avill  mention  is 
the  Christian  belief  in  the  last  judgment.  In  a  similar 
manner  it  may  be  shown  that  if  we  would  rid  ourselves 
of  that  belief,  we  must  fortify  ourselves  against  it  with 
a  great  mass  of  beliefs  difficult  for  us  to  receive.  As 
Christians,  we  may  hold  that  a  God  of  justice  and  love, 
the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  will  deal  according 
to  his  full  divine  perfection  with  every  soul  of  man,  and 
that  all  must  appear  at  last  before  the  same  judgment- 
seat,  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ.  We  must  believe 
that  God's  government  of  the  world  is  not  two  systems 
— a  system  of  nature  and  a  system  of  grace,  each  com- 
plete in  itself,  and  each  capable  of  running  on  by  itself 
forever,  to  the  eternal  satisfaction  of  the  Father  of  all. 
God  has,  we  believe,  one  system  for  all  souls — the  system 
for  which  nature  is  preparatory,  the  final  system  of  his 
grace.  All  must  stand  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Christ.  Knowing  that  Christ  is  to  be  the  Judge  of  all 
men,  as  Christian  believers  we  can  postpone  any  questions 
about  the  judgment-day  which  may  be  asked,  but  not 
answered  now,  until  his  perfect  will  shall  be  made  plain ; 
meanwhile  telling  to  one  another,  if  we  please,  our  own 
speculations  as  the  child's  guesses  concerning  the 
Father's  way  and  wisdom,  and  refusing  to  allow  any 
man  to  overburden  our  Christian  faith  with  his  earthly 
imaginations  and  temporal  logic  of  eternity.     But  surely 


The  Difficulty  of  not  Believmg,  57 

everything  in  this  world  would  be  left  at  loose  ends,  and 
all  our  instincts  of  justice,  righteousness,  and  love 
thrown  into  confusion,  if  we  should  attempt  to  wrench 
the  substance  of  this  Christian  faith  in  the  judgment 
to  come  from  our  experience  of  this  present  life.  Not  to 
believe  in  it  requires  a  great  task  of  reason  and  con- 
science ;  for  then  one  must  believe  that  there  is  no  moral 
order,  as  there  is  plainly  a  natural  order  of  things ;  one 
must  then  believe  that  the  one  constant  undertone  of 
justice  in  man^s  consciousness  is  a  false  note  of  life ;  that 
the  first  laws  of  things  are  but  principles  of  eternal  dis- 
cord ;  that  man's  whole  moral  life  and  history,  in  short, 
is  meaningless  and  w^orthless.  You  say  it  is  a  terrible 
thing  to  believe  in  the  judgment  to  come ;  yes,  but  it  is 
a  more  fearful  thing  not  to  believe  in  it. 

Not  to  prolong  these  illustrations  of  my  argument,  I 
want  to  put  one  or  two  thoughts  before  you  in  conclusion. 
The  man  of  the  world  usually  does  not  live  consistently 
up  to  his  own  creed.  Unbelief  saves  itself  from  practical 
contempt  by  really  living  on  more  faith  than  it  allows.  It 
is  said  that  as  Christians  we  do  not  live  up  to  our  own 
faith,  and  we  do  not.  It  would  be  a  happier  world  if  we 
did.  We  should  be  better  men  if  we  did.  Every  good 
work  would  prosper,  and  this  would  be  the  grandest  mis- 
sionary age  of  Christian  history,  if  we  did.  If  all  the 
churches  should  live  up  to  the  edges  even  of  the  faith  of 
the  Son  of  God,  jealousies  and  unseemly  strife  among 
brethren  would  cease;  peace  and  righteousness  would 
abound,  love  would  reign  in  liberty,  if  the  world  were 
really  Christian,  as  so  much  of  it  is  becoming  nominally 
Christian.    Nominally  Christian  even,  it  is  a  better  world 


58  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

than  it  ever  was  before ;  Christianity  fully  realized  will  be 
this  earth's  millenium.  But  what  if  unbelief  should  live 
up  to  its  creed?  Inconsistent  Christendom  is  a  vast 
improvement  over  consistent  paganism.  Men  say,  Let 
Christians  be  honest  in  living  their  faiths.  May  God 
help  us  so  to  do  !  But  let  us  be  thankful  that  world- 
liness  does  not,  and  by  God's  grace  cannot,  live  out  to 
the  honest  end  its  own  creed.  Let  us  be  thankful  that 
it  is  not  so  easy  for  men  to  rob  themselves  of  all  faith  in 
divine  things,  and  live  as  though  there  were  no  God,  and 
no  Christ,  and  no  hereafter.  Let  us  be  thankful  that 
God  in  his  providence  and  grace  does  make  the  short 
creed  of  the  atheist  the  most  difficult  of  all  creeds  to 
subscribe  honestly  to,  and  a  consistently  worldly  life  of 
all  lives  the  most  impossible  and  wretched.  But  right 
here  lies  the  real  difficulty  with  many  of  us.  The  creed 
of  the  world,  though  it  does  require  us  to  believe  a  great 
many  things  hard  to  receive,  is  an  indecisive  creed  which 
does  not  demand  of  those  who  profess  it  constant  and 
consistent  effort  to  live  up  to  it.  The  creed  of  the  world 
is  yea  and  nay ;  the  creed  of  the  Christ  is  one  constant 
spiritual  affirmation ; — In  him,  says  the  Apostle,  was  yea. 
Christian  faith  is  a  will  to  do  God's  will.  It  is  to  do 
the  truth.  It  does  require  decision  and  confession  of 
Christ.  It  requires  daily  watchfulness  and  growth  of 
soul  in  those  who  will  live  by  it.  Hence  many  prefer  to 
stay  under  the  hard  terms  of  the  world's  creed  which 
costs  them  at  least  no  great  decision,  self-denial,  or  con- 
version, in  order  to  submit  to  it.  Nevertheless,  they 
who  do  come  to  Jesus,  and  take  up  their  lives  in  his 
creed  of  trust  and  love,  although  they  give  up  all  to  fol- 


The  Difficiclty  of  not  Believing.  59 

low  him,  find  his  service  easy  and  his  burden  light.  As 
our  text  puts  it,  they  were  in  bondage  to  them  which  by 
nature  are  no  gods ;  for  the  gods  of  this  w^orld  are  no 
gods ;  there  is  no  truth  or  reality  in  them ;  worldliness  is 
idolatry,  and  the  creed  of  worldliness  is  superstition — the 
worship,  that  is,  of  forms  of  good,  not  the  possession  of 
the  substance  of  things  hoped  for ;  but  now  as  Christians 
they  "  have  come  to  know  God  f  all  their  experience  of 
life  grows  more  and  more  into  their  Christian  knowledge 
of  God  ;  or  rather  they  have  come  "  to  be  known  of  God ; " 
for  God  is  before  us  in  everything ;  we  are  first  known 
of  him,  and  we  then  recognize  him  in  our  own  thoughts 
and  lives ;  we  love  him  because  he  first  loved  us ;  he  is 
first  before  us,  forgiving  the  sin  of  the  w^orld,  and  then 
we  know  that  we  are  forgiven ; — now  that  as  Christians 
we  have  come  to  know  God,  or  rather  to  be  known  of 
God,  how  can  any  of  us  turn  back  again  to  the  weak 
and  beggarly  rudiments — the  enslaving  beliefs  of  this 
world,  or  desire  to  be  in  bondage  over  again?  Let 
others  stumble  through  life  as  they  may  with  nothing 
but  the  world's  inharmonious  creed  in  their  hearts,  and 
no  thought  or  plan  of  life  reaching  out  beyond  these 
earthly  horizons  into  the  sunny  distance  of  eternity ;  as 
for  us,  we  will  walk  in  the  liberty  of  Christ,  finding  his 
creed  as  w^e  go  dow^n  through  the  years  to  be  the 
harmony  of  all  true  words  and  happy  voices,  and  a  song 
in  the  heart  in  the  night  of  death. 


V. 

JESUS'  VIEW  OF  LIFE. 

"^rcort)i'iT5  to  (!^\)Xist  icsus."— Romans  xv.  5. 

You  liave  felt  often  a  strange  fascination  as  you  have 
stood  looking  out  upon  the  open  sea.  A  wave  flashing 
far  out  in  the  sunshine,  the  depths  breaking  into  a 
moment's  foam  at  your  feet;  the  strong  voice  of  the 
rising  tide  and  the  moan  of  the  receding  waters;  the 
restless  motion,  the  deeper  peace;  the  vastness,  the 
power,  the  vague,  boundless  distance  in  which  sea  and 
sky  run  together  and  are  lost, — all  held  you  to  the  spot 
as  though  you  were  in  an  infinite  presence,  and  stirred 
within  you  thoughts  for  which  you  had  no  words.  But 
there  is  one  object  which  moves  with  still  deeper  power, 
and  holds  with  more  potent  fascination  the  man  who  has 
eyes  to  look  upon  it,  and  a  soul  to  echo  to  it ;  and  that 
is  the  mystery  of  human  life.  When  a  man  stands 
looking  into  a  sea  of  human  faces,  he  is  in  the  presence 
of  what  power,  and  vastness  of  possibilities,  and  deep 
things  of  God !  When  a  man  stands  looking,  as  I  do 
now,  into  the  faces  of  his  fellow-men,  he  stands  before 
what  worlds  of  thought,  and  histories  of  souls,  and 
powers  of  endless  life  !  Behind  every  eye  into  which  he 
looks  is  an  immoi-tal  soul !  Beneath  every  face  is  veiled 
a  deathless  spirit !  We  do  not  know  the  life  before  us. 
We  cannot  know  it.  It  is  too  great  and  boundless. 
60 


yesiis     View  of  Life,  6i 

Even  the  few  circles  of  human  histories  which  we  think 
we  have  measured  and  known — our  personal  acquaint- 
ances— sweep  out  beyond  our  view  into  the  hereafter. 
And  even  within  the  lines  of  our  present  experience  of 
the  world,  what  we  know  of  it  is  but  little  of  the  life 
and  thought,  the  care  and  pain,  the  love  and  sorrow,  in 
the  midst  of  which  we  dwell.  When  we  stand  before 
real  life ;  when  we  think  of  what  it  is ;  when  in  quick 
succession  we  let  the  faces  of  those  whom  we  have  known 
pass  before  us,  each  with  its  own  story  or  hope ;  when 
we  listen  and  hear  coming  to  us  from  far  and  near  life's 
many  voices — its  laughter  and  its  tragedies,  its  loud 
ambitions  and  its  prayers  for  peace,  its  daily  cries  of 
want  and  Babel  of  confusions;  we  can  hardly  endure 
thinking  of  its  burden  and  its  mystery;  we  turn  for 
relief  to  our  present  duty,  or  the  little  thing  of  the 
moment's  occupation,  putting  away  from  us  the  thought 
of  what  is  our  life.  If  any  one  of  us  could  really  see 
and  know,  as  we  believe  God  sees  and  knows,  the  lives  of 
a  single  company  of  human  beings — such  as  I  am  now 
looking  upon — with  all  that  is  involved  in  those  lives — 
their  past,  their  present,  their  future,  all  the  lives  of 
others  knit  together,  or  torn  from  theirs,  and  the  eternal 
possibilities  in  those  human  souls,  I  do  not  believe  our 
human  sympathies  could  contain  such  revelations.  The 
Scripture  tells  us  that  no  man  can  see  God  and  live. 
Perhaps  no  one  of  us  could  see  man  even,  as  God  sees 
him,  and  not  be  overpowered  by  the  disclosure  of  sin, 
and  suffering,  and  need,  of  love,  and  grace,  and  hope. 
The  novelist  holds  up  befoie  us  a  little  of  this  complex, 
boundless  whole  of  life,  and  our  sympathies  are  stirred 


62  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

to  the  depths  by  a  vivid  picture  of  a  fragment  of  it. 
But  there  will  always  be  need  of  the  novelist  with  his 
eye  for  life,  because  the  story  of  life  is  too  great  ever  to 
be  told.  The  philosopher  stands  coolly  looking  over  the 
tides  of  human  affairs,  seeking  to  determine  their  metes 
and  bounds,  but  what  are  his  statistics  to  life  ?  Real  life 
in  its  laughter  and  its  woes  remains  larger  and  deeper 
than  all  our  philosophy  of  it.  We  have  not  succeeded 
in  reducing:  so  much  as  the  little  life  of  the  child  of 
yesterday  to  a  science — still  less  the  soul  of  a  man.  It 
escapes  our  definitions.  We  cannot  measure  a  life.  You 
think  that  you  will  hold  a  whole  system  of  divinity  in 
your  iron  logic ;  I  ask  you  to  comprehend  the  life  of  a 
little  child  in  your  thought  of  it.  But  what  then? 
Must  I  remain  simply  a  perplexed  spectator  of  life,  as 
experience  grows,  becoming  indifferent  to  this  whirl  and 
confusion  of  things  which  I  cannot  alter  or  even  under- 
stand? Or  must  I  plunge  into  the  world  as  it  goes, 
seizing  what  I  can,  keeping  on  the  surface  for  my  pass- 
ing hour,  thoughtless  of  what  has  been  before  or  may  be 
after  me  ?  Or,  at  best,  must  I  be  content  with  this  little 
eddy  of  time  in  wdiich  I  find  myself,  taking  as  easily  as 
I  can  the  motion  of  things  around  me,  being  satisfied 
with  what  I  have,  living  as  long  and  as  pleasantly  as  I 
may  until  the  bright  bubble  of  my  home  also  breaks  into 
the  great  all,  and  life  flows  on  as  before  without  me  and 
mine. 

My  friends,  I  have  been  trying  thus  to  put  into  words 
thoughts  and  feelings  which  often  do  come  to  us  half 
consciously,  half  intelligibly,  numbing  sometimes  our 
hearts,  or  shadowing  us  for   moments  until  we  break 


yes2is     Vieiv  of  Life.  63 

away  from  them  in  some  careless  laughter,  or  turn  to 
recover  our  strength  of  purpose  in  our  work  in  the 
world.  Often  as  we  have  listened,  while  some  friend 
has  quietly  told  us  of  stories  of  life  w^hich  were  fraught 
with  strangeness,  or  we  have  seen  some  sudden  disclosure 
of  the  evils  of  life  waiting  around  us,  or  our  own  past 
has  come  like  a  dream  before  us,  we  have  felt  this 
question  asking  itself  in  our  hearts, — What  is  your  life  ? 
And  we  have  thought,  like  the  Apostle,  of  the  vapor 
gathered  out  of  the  viewless  air,  catching  a  moment's 
light,  and  as  quickly  vanishing  whence  it  came.  Or  a 
single  word,  a  moment's  quick  glance  may  have  disclosed 
to  us  some  hidden  care  or  anxiety  beneath  some  pleasant 
surface  of  a  life.  I  have  looked  out  at  sea  and  watched 
for  many  minutes  the  calm,  unbroken  surface  of  the 
water.  And  then,  where  all  seemed  safe  and  sunny,  a 
slight  roll  of  the  tide  revealed  what  only  one  who 
happened  to  be  looking  just  at  that  moment  would  have 
noticed,  a  sunken  reef,  broken  and  tangled  with  sea- 
weed— a  point  of  restlessness  ahvays  there  for  the  waters 
to  vex  themselves  over.  We  have  such  glimpses  at  times, 
if  we  are  observant,  even  into  lives  which,  for  the  most 
part,  seem  undisturbed  and  bright.  And  though  one 
tries  to  hold  at  arm's  length  from  him  all  feeling  for  life, 
some  little  thing  may  bring  it  upon  him  unawares.  ]\Ien 
and  women  and  children  are  not  so  many  volumes  of 
physiology ;  they  are  bundles  of  life  feeling  themselves 
in  every  nerve;  they  are  not  automatons,  however 
mechanical  their  habits  of  life  may  become;  and  the 
only  thing  which  can  take  all  color  of  sentiment  and 
sympathy  for  life  out  of  human  hearts  is  death.     I  take 


64  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

it  for  granted,  then,  that  we,  all  of  us,  as  we  have  listened 
to  stories  of  real  life,  or  entered  for  moments  of  sympathy, 
at  least,  into  other  people^s  minds  and  moods,  have  felt 
coming  over  us  this  wonder  and  awe,  and  sense  of 
strangeness  of  life.  We  have  felt,  if  we  have  not  said, 
What  does  it  all  mean  ?  AVhat  is  it  worth  ?  How  shall 
people  live?  Is  there  any  way  of  life  perfect  and 
sufficient  for  all?  Or  must  we  go  stumbling  about 
among  things,  ourselves  but  accidents  of  being,  gifted  by 
chance  with  knowledge  that  we  live  and  die  ?  I  think 
that  such  questionings  of  soul  in  view  of  life  come  to  us 
not  only  as  we  grow  older,  or  when  we  are  tired,  but 
also  they  sometimes  startle  us  in  the  first  freshness  of 
youth ;  I  have  heard  them  rising  in  momentary  questions 
of  children,  deep  sometimes  as  life ;  and  in  after  years 
only  a  slight  jostle  from  outward  things  will  stir  often  the 
soul  of  man  with  a  strange  consciousness  of  being.  What 
is  the  true  life  ?  Is  there  any  reason  and  method  of  God 
in  it  ?  Shall  this  confusion  and  hurry  of  a  world  ever 
become  order,  and  be  at  rest?  You  had  some  such 
thoughts  and  feelings  when  your  mother  died,  and  your 
childhood  was  broken.  You  had  them  when  you  had 
been  chasing  eagerly  after  your  first  ambition,  and  awoke 
to  find  it  was  naught.  You  had  such  thoughts  and 
questions  of  soul  when  you  stood  hesitating,  yet  com- 
pelled to  choose  your  own  way,  and  to  face  your  own 
responsibility  of  a  life.  Such  thoughts  of  life's  emptiness 
have  come  at  times  when  all  was  going  prosperously  with 
you ;  and  also  when  you  were  buffeting  with  circum- 
stance. You  have  such  thoughts  and  feelings  of  life 
because  you  are  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  can  never 


Jestis     View  of  Life,  65 

rest  satisfied  until  you  find  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for.  You  may  throw  yourself  into  business,  and  let  the 
world  around  you  suck  out  your  own  soul ;  but  even 
business,  though  it  fills  a  man's  thoughts  for  a  while, 
cannot  be  done  by  any  man  when  he  is  dying;  and 
though  we  may  not  care  now  to  take  time  to  tliink  of 
these  things  of  the  soul,  every  man  of  us  will  have  to 
take  time  to  die ;  and  amid  the  thickening  shadows  of 
the  last  hour,  the  old,  haunting  questions  of  life,  often 
driven  away,  if  never  before  manfully  met,  may  return, 
a  legion  of  them,  w^orse  than  before. 

I  have  been  dwelling  thus  upon  these  our  common 
human  thoughts  and  feelings  with  regard  to  life  and 
death,  because  I  wish  now  to  go  with  such  thoughts  of 
our  hearts  to  the  one  man  of  men  who  seemed  to  stand 
above  all  this  our  human  weakness,  ignorance,  and 
doubt ;  the  man  who  alone  of  all  men  has  said,  in  full 
view  of  this  great,  restless  mystery  of  our  life, — I  know. 
How  did  the  Christ  look  upon  the  lives  of  men  ?  Did 
he  stand  before  life,  spell-bound  and  awed,  like  a  child 
before  the  ocean?  Was  this  many- voiced,  multiform, 
endless  complexity  of  life,  which  we  see,  in  which  we 
are  tossed  about,  of  which  at  times  even  the  bravest  of 
us  grow  weary  at  heart,  to  him  also  endless  confusion  of 
joy  and  sorrow,  a  tumult  of  cloud  and  sunshine — a 
something  ^vithout  method,  or  meaning,  or  purpose,  or 
end  ?  What  was  our  life  to  Jesus  ?  We  may  be  sure 
tliat  he  saw  all  these  changes,  and  strange  minglings  of 
comedies  and  tragedies,  which  so  confuse  and  exhaust  us. 
We  may  be  sure  that  no  novelist,  nay,  not  all  the  novel- 
ists or  poets  who  have  had   insight  into  hearts,  seen 

5 


66  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

charactei-s,  and  made  miniatures  in  their  stories  of  the 
world  around  them,  ever  understood  men,  or  took  in  at  a 
glance  the  histories  of  human  souls,  or  saw  to  the  end,  in 
its  last  scene,  the  drama  of  human  history,  as  did  the  Son 
of  man  who  needed  not  that  any  should  tell  him  of  men, 
for  he  knew  what  was  in  man.  AYe  may  be  sure,  then, 
that  these  thoughts  of  our  hearts  about  life,  such  thoughts 
as  I  have  been  trying  to  suggest  in  words,  were  perfectly 
familiar  to  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  He  knew  ^vhat  his  dis- 
ciples were  thinking  about,  as  they  went  from  city  to  city 
and  through  the  villages  wdth  him.  He  knew  the  world 
of  men.  If  we  feel  at  times  the  myriad  multiplicity  and 
infinite  confusions  of  life,  and  wonder  what  it  all  means 
and  is  worth ;  we  may  be  perfectly  sure  that  the  most 
sensitive  and  receptive  soul  that  ever  was  found  in 
fashion  as  a  man  felt  life  as  we  never  have.  He  was 
touched,  says  the  record,  with  a  feeling  of  our  infirmities. 
Indeed,  all  that  we  see  in  the  world  around  us — youth, 
laughter,  love,  hope,  vanity,  passion,  evil,  death — all 
these  powers  of  light  and  darkness  w^hich  we  know — 
were  making  and  marring  the  life  upon  which  Jesus 
looked ;  every  synagogue  which  he  entered  Avas  a  bit  of 
the  same  problem  of  humanity  of  which  our  lives  are 
parts.  You  may  be  sure,  then,  that  you  never  had  an 
experience,  a  feeling,  or  a  thought  about  life  and  death, 
which  in  its  real  nature  and  meaning  was  not  perfectly 
known  and  familiar  to  Jesus  Christ.  He  measured  in 
his  own  experience  our  temptations,  and  his  life  took  in 
Cana  of  Galilee,  a  sick  room  in  Capernaum,  the  market- 
place before  the  temple,  the  streets  of  the  city,  the  country 
towns  by  the  sea,  the  master  in  Israel,  the  multitude  of 


yesiis     View  of  Life.  6y 

the  people,  the  whole  world  of  his  day,  and  of  all  days — 
our  world-age,  and  God^s  eternity. 

Remembering  thus  that  Jesus  lived  as  never  poet, 
philosopher,  or  novelist  has  lived,  in  the  real  world  of 
human  motives  and  hearts,  with  our  real  human  life  a 
daily  transparency  before  his  eye,  open  now  these  Gospels, 
and  see  if  you  can  find  there  in  Jesus'  view  of  our 
life,  in  his  thought  of  us,  any  such  feelings  or  question- 
ings as  I  have  been  expressing  in  this  sermon — any 
such  sense  of  the  emptiness,  vanity,  strangeness  of  life,  as 
we  have  often  felt  resting  like  a  shadow  over  our 
thoughts?  Did  not  he  listen  to  stories  of  lives  as 
strange  and  sad  as  any  we  have  ever  heard  ?  Did  not 
he  look  upon  things  as  contradictory  to  goodness  and 
God  as  anything  we  have  ever  seen  under  the  sun  ?  And 
with  purer  eyes  ?  Did  not  he  feel  with  larger  sympathy 
and  warmer  heart  the  broken,  tangled,  bleeding  lives  of 
men  ?  Did  not  he  bear  the  sin  of  the  world  ?  Where, 
then,  is  our  human  word  of  doubt  among  his  words? 
Where  is  the  echo  of  man's  despair  among  the  sayings 
of  our  Lord?  Where,  in  his  conversation  with  his 
friends,  can  you  catch  a  note  of  that  minor  key  which 
runs  through  our  common  speech  of  life?  He  could 
weep  with  those  who  mourned  ;  but  he  spake  and  thought 
of  life  and  the  resurrection  before  the  grave  of  Lazarus. 
Read  over  these  Gospels  carefully,  and  where  among  Jesus' 
words  will  you  find  even  the  interrogation-point  of  our 
ignorance?  Upon  what  parable  of  the  Lord  rest  the 
shadows  which  come  and  go  over  all  our  poetry  of  life  ? 
What  discourse  of  his  fortifies  itself  by  the  arguments, 
laboriously  heaped  up,  with  which  our  faith  betrays  its 


68  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

own  fear  ?  Read  Tennyson's  In  Memoriani ;  and  then 
read  the  story  of  Jesus'  words  at  Bethany.  Read 
Matthew  Arnold's  poems ;  and  then  read  Jesus'  para- 
bles. Read  Herbert  Spencer's  First  Principles,  and  then 
read  Jesus'  single  discourse  with  the  master  in  Israel. 
Remember,  you  cannot  say  that  Jesus  Christ  did  not 
know  our  unbelief.  You  cannot  say  that  he  did  not 
understand  our  sense  of  life's  mystery  and  brokenness. 
He  saw  it  all  in  Mary's  tears.  He  read  it  in  the 
thoughts  of  disciples'  hearts.  He  heard  it  in  Nicodemus' 
hard  question ; — How  can  these  things  be  ?  Why,  then, 
did  he  never  reproduce  our  common  human  weariness 
and  doubt  in  his  thought  of  life  ?  Why  did  he  not  show 
himself  to  be  a  man  like  one  of  us,  as  he  wrestled  there 
among  men  with  all  their  burdens  and  their  woes  ?  Why 
was  there  not  a  word,  or  note,  or  tone,  or  far-off  echo  of 
such  human  sense  of  weakness,  wonder,  hungry  doubt 
as  life  brings  so  often  to  our  lips,  ever  heard  in  all  his 
w^ondrous  life  of  toil  and  sympathy  with  man  ?  Who  is 
He  whose  feet  tread  our  common  ways,  whose  spirit 
dwells  above  the  clouds  ?  Behold  the  man  !  Behold 
Jesus  the  Lord  of  life  !  Behold  the  Son  of  man  on  earth 
who  is  in  Heaven  !  He  looks  out  upon  this  restless,  age- 
long mystery  of  our  existence.  But  not  as  we  Avalk 
insignificant  upon  the  beach  before  the  ocean.  He  stands 
before  our  life  in  the  consciousness  of  power.  He  walks 
upon  the  sea,  and  the  winds  and  the  waves  obey  him. 
Not  upon  the  seji  of  Galilee  alone  !  Upon  the  sea  of 
life  !  Its  winds  and  waves  obey  him.  He  stands  before 
our  life.  Its  sin  and  woe  are  the  burden  and  the  sorrow 
of  the  Christ ;  but  its  meaning  is  no  unknown  voice  to 


Jesus     View  of  Life.  69 

liim.  It  is  not  an  endless  wonder  to  him.  He  sees  our 
life  surrounded  by  the  living  God.  He  sees,  beneath  our 
world,  undergirding  it,  God's  mighty  purpose.  He  sees 
above  the  righteous  Father.  He  sees  the  calm  of 
eternity.  Nay,  as  you  may  have  looked  into  a  troubled 
pool  of  waters,  and  seen  shimmering  in  broken  lines 
beneath  its  wind-stirred  surface  the  reflection  of  the 
skies,  so  this  man  sees  the  promise  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  even  in  troubled  Judea.  And  knowing  life 
better  than  you  or  I  do,  knowing  such  things  as  you 
may  have  heard  yesterday,  or  may  experience  to-morrow — 
enough  sometimes  to  make  men  wonder  whether  there 
be  a  God,  or  truth,  or  anything  of  worth, — Jesus  Christ, 
in  full,  open  view  of  all  life,  said  :  "  Let  not  your  heart  be 
troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid.  Ye  believe  in  God ; 
believe  also  in  me.'' 

We  begin  to  come  now  in  sight  of  the  conclusion 
to  which  I  wish  to  lead.  I  have  just  been  speak- 
ing of  Jesus'  perfect  human  knowledge  of  men,  and 
all  that  enters  into  our  comedy  and  tragedy  of  a 
w^orld.  I  have  asked  you  also  to  observe,  and  to 
verify  by  reading  the  Gospels,  the  most  singular  and 
significant  fact  that  with  all  tliis  knowledge  of  humanity 
Jesus  had  in  himself  none  of  the  doubt,  the  fear,  the 
sense  of  strangeness,  w^hich  is  our  common  human 
inheritance.  The  evangelists  could  not  possibly  have 
omitted  this  common  human  characteristic  if  the  character 
of  Jesus  had  been  the  creation  of  their  own  imaginations. 
You  will  find  shadow  after  shadow  of  our  human 
questioning  crossing  the  path  of  Buddha,  and  lingering 
upon  the  heights  of  human  genius ;  but  not  the  shadow  of 


70  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

a  passing  doubt  or  fear  over  all  Jesus'  couversatiou  with 
men.  How  could  the  Son  of  man  look  thus  in  the  joy 
and  triumph  of  a  God  upon  such  a  strange  thing  as  our 
life  is  ?  It  was  because  he  knew  what  he  was  sent  from 
God  to  do.  It  was  because  he  knew  what  his  own  life 
was  to  be  for  the  world.  It  was  because  he  saw  the 
coming  order,  and  the  all-sufficient  grace  for  life.  It 
was  because  he  knew  that  human  life  was  not  a  hopeless 
mystery  to  the  love  of  God,  but  from  the  beginning  was 
redeemed  and  glorified.  It  was  because  he  knew  that 
his  mighty  works  of  healing,  at  which  the  people 
marveled,  were  but  the  virtue  which  had  gone  forth  from 
the  fringes  and  hem  of  his  robe  wIk)  was  to  walk  in  the 
power  of  his  Spirit  through  human  history,  making  all 
things  new.  It  was  because  he  knew  that  he  was  Lord 
of  the  creation  from  before  the  foundation  of  the  w^orld, 
and  the  world  sooner  or  later  is  to  be  according  to 
Christ !  According  to  Christ !  That  is  the  key-word 
for  the  interpretation  of  the  creation.  Everything  comes 
right,  as  it  takes  form  and  being  according  to  Christ. 
Everything  in  life  or  death  shall  be  well,  as  it  ends  in 
accordance  with  Christ.  This  is  the  key-note  for  the 
final  harmony, — According  to  Christ !  This,  then,  is  our 
simple  Christian  understanding  of  life.  We  do  not  pre- 
tend to  explain  why  things  are  as  they  are.  We  do 
know,  since  the  Cross  and  Pentecost,  which  way  the 
whole  is  moving.  It  is  toward  Christ  and  his  judgment- 
throne.  We  do  not  know  how  all  things  are  to  be  made 
right ;  but  we  do  know  that  there  has  been  given  us  a 
law  of  life  which  is  sufficient. 

What  is  given  us  in  these  Gospels  is  not  a  revelation 


yesus    View  of  Life,  71 

of  all  mysteries ;  but  what  we  need  much  more  than 
that,  a  perfect  method  of  liviui^  according  to  Christ; 
that  is  our  sufficient  and  our  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice.  We  shall  understand  life  at  last,  we  shall  find 
all  its  shadows  turned  to  light  by  and  by,  if  we  take  up 
our  lives  and  seek  to  live  them  day  by  day  according  to 
Christ.  This  is  a  method  by  which  every  man  may 
order  his  life.  For  it  is  not  a  law  of  commandments, 
written  in  a  dead  tongue ;  it  is  a  living  spirit.  Every 
man  who  can  read  the  New  Testament,  can  begin,  if  he 
chooses,  to  order  his  life  according  to  Christ.  He  may 
not  understand  the  doctrines.  He  may  not  have  satis- 
fied his  mind  with  regard  to  many  questions  concerning 
the  Bible.  But  when  he  goes  down  to  his  office  or  store^ 
and  looks  his  brother-man  in  the  face,  he  may  know 
what  things  are  honest,  and  of  good  report,  according  to 
Jesus  Christ.  When  he  goes  to  his  home,  he  may  know 
what  manner  of  life  there  is  according  to  Christ.  When 
he  sees  any  want  of  men,  he  may  know  how  he  ought  to 
help,  according  to  Christ.  And  when  he  is  with  him- 
self, he  may  know  how  to  bring  his  o^n  imaginations 
into  subjection,  according  to  Christ.  And  when  any 
temptation  assails  him,  he  may  know  what  he  ought  to 
do  with  all  his  might,  according  to  Christ.  And  when 
men  wrong  him,  and  the  world  is  hard,  he  may  know, 
too,  of  what  spirit  and  temper  he  ought  to  be,  according 
to  Christ.  Yes,  and  when  trouble  comes,  or  sickness,  or 
we  near  the  end,  then  we  may  know  how  we  need  not 
fear,  nor  be  troubled,  according  to  Christ.  And  in  our 
churches,  too,  we  may  be  of  many  minds,  on  many  sub- 
jects, but  we  ought  to  know  also  how  to  be  of  the  same 


72  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

mind,  if  we  are  willing  to  think  and  to  judge  all  things 
by  this  one  infallible  rule,  according  to  Christ.  The  new 
era  is  dawning  when  in  all  our  churches,  and  upon  the 
whole  white  missionary  field  of  the  world,  more  than 
ever  before  we  are  to  labor,  to  build,  and  to  rejoice, 
according  to  this  all-sufficient  rule — Jesus  Christ.  The 
waste,  the  rivalries,  the  fears  will  go  ;  the  grand  triumph- 
ant unity  of  the  church  in  the  spirit  will  come  ;  as  w^e 
learn  more  and  more  to  do  our  work,  and  think  our 
thought,  and  live  our  lives,  by  no  other  rule,  in  no 
method  less  sure  and  noble  than  simply  this,  according 
to  Christ.  And  if  this  be  our  endeavor,  if  we  are  will- 
ing to  adopt  this  only  worthy  and  sufficieut  method  of  a 
human  life,  and  would  live  according  to  Christ,  then  why, 
in  all  honesty  and  sincerity,  should  we  not  stand  up  and 
say  so  in  the  confession  of  his  name  ?  Not  as  though 
we  had  already  attained,  either  were  already  perfect. 
God  knows  we  are  not.  But  we  would  live  after  the 
highest  and  the  best.  We  would  find  our  lives  accord- 
ing to  Christ.  Then  let  us,  in  a  humble,  manly  way, 
confess  him  before  men,  and  seek  for  the  grace  of  life  at 
the  Lord's  table. 


VI. 

KEAL  CHRISTIANITY. 

"®i)at  gooii  tfjing  b3f)t4  ^as  tommitttij  unto  i\)n  guarir  ttroug^  tfii 
J^oIS  (Gtljost  inf)ut  ii»£lltlt  in  us." — 2  Tim.  i.  14. 

The  providence  of  God  requires  all  Christians  and  all 
Churches  to  show  what  Christianity  really  is.  I  do  not 
mean  that  good  men  have  not  always  since  the  days  of 
Pentecost  been  required  to  do  this ;  I  do  not  mean  that 
the  generations  of  believers,  martyrs,  and  saints,  have 
not  witnessed  a  good  confession  in  the  name  of  Christ ; 
but  I  do  mean  that  Christian  history  has  not  yet  real- 
ized what  Christianity  fully  is,  and  that  it  is  our  high 
calling  from  the  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  to  show  still  further  to  the  whole  world  what 
Christianity  is.  Christianity  is  a  larger  and  better  thing 
than  Christendom  yet  knows.  It  was  the  saying  of 
a  Church  father  that  we  are  "to  Live  according  to 
Christianity.^'  When  men  have  learned  to  live  according 
to  Christ,  Christianity  will  be  fully  come,  but  not  till 
then. 

The  duty  enjoined  upon  Timothy,  is  a  responsibility 
which  devolves  from  one  generation  of  believers  to 
another,  and  with  increasing  obligation — That  good  thing, 
or  that  sacred  deposit,  which  was  committed  unto  thee 
guard  through  the  Holy  Ghost  which  dwelleth  in  us. 
Still  the  Holy  Spirit  dwells  in  the  apostolic  succession  of 

73 


74  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

tlie  whole  true  Church  of  Christ,  showing  it  what  the 
things  of  Christ  are,  and  helping  it  realize  them  in 
Christianity. 

How,  then,  are  we  to  understand  what  the  Chris- 
tianity is  which  we  are  still  called  to  make  real  on 
earth?  In  answer  to  this  most  practical  question,  I 
remark,  in  the  first  place,  the  Christianity  which  the 
world  needs,  probably  transcends  any  single  definition  of 
it  which  we  shall  be  likely  to  give.  Philosophers  have 
tried  many  times  to  define  the  simple  word  life,  and  at 
best  they  have  had  only  clumsy  success  with  their  defi- 
nitions of  what  every  one  knows  by  his  own  healthy 
pulse-beatings.  The  definition  is  not  made  easier  when 
we  prefix  the  adjective  Christian  to  the  word  life.  If 
we  labor  to  define  in  words  so  large  and  divine  a  reality 
as  Christianity,  we  shall  be  sure  to  narrow  it  in  our  verbal 
enclosures,  and  we  can  hardly  fail  to  leave  whole  realms 
of  Christianity  out  when  we  have  finished  our  fences  of 
system  and  denomination. 

Moreover,  in  all  life,  even  the  lowly  life  of  a  blade  of 
grass,  there  is  a  transcendent  element  beyond  our  defini- 
tion— a  mystery  and  power  of  life,  which,  if  we  knew, 
we  might  know  what  God  himself  is.  In  the  Christian 
life,  in  Christianity  as  the  continued  and  ever-unfolding 
life  of  Christ  in  the  world,  there  is  a  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  above  nature,  and  a  divine  mystery  of  love, 
which  we  may  know  as  a  historical  fact  of  redemption, 
but  which  no  human  reason  can  adequately  comprehend. 

I  remark,  in  the  second  place,  that  Christianity  is  a 
larger  thing  than  any  one  particular  aspect  or  exemplifi- 
cation of  it  which  men  may  be  tempted  to  put  in  the 


Real  CJiristianity.  75 

pliKJC  of  it.  Cliristiauity,  as  a  whole,  is  greater  than  the 
parts  of  it  ^vhic'h  men  have  hastily  seizal  upon,  and  con- 
tended for  as  the  faith  of  the  saints.  This  is  but  saying, 
in  other  words,  that  the  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ  is 
greater  than  the  Christianity  of  Peter,  James  or  Paul ; 
of  Hildebrand,  or  Erasmus,  or  Luther ;  of  Calvin  or 
Chanuing;  Christianity  is  that  good  thing  which  all 
the  churches  hold  in  common,  and  it  is  greater  than  all. 
The  Christianity  of  Christ  is  that  good  thing  com- 
mitted unto  us,  which  is  large  enough  to  comprehend  all 
the  ideals  of  Christian  prophets,  and  prayers  of  devout 
hearts,  as  well  as  the  works  of  faith  w^hich  have  been  done 
on  earth.  It  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  And  we  need 
to  keep  this  thought  of  the  still  unrealized  greatness  of 
the  Christianity  of  Christ  ever  in  mind,  lest  we  be  found 
standing  in  the  way  of  the  Christian  w^ill  of  God  in  the 
course  of  events,  when  we  stand  with  mistaken  firmness, 
not  for  the  whole  of  Christianity  which  is  in  part  his- 
torical, and  in  part  prophetic,  but  only  for  that  form  or 
present  realization  of  Christianity  which  corresponds  to 
our  own  habits  or  education.  Find  out  under  any  given 
circumstances  what  is  the  most  Christian  thing  to  be 
done,  or  the  most  Christian  thought  that  one  can  think ; 
and  let  us  stand  for  that  until  we  can  find  something 
more  Christian  to  do,  or  a  thought  more  true  to  the 
Spirit  of  Christ ! 

It  would  be  easy  to  illustrate  from  current  life  and 
literature  the  natural  tendency  of  the  human  heart  to 
substitute  some  favorite  part  of  Christianity  for  the 
divine  whole  of  it.  And  the  unfortunate  contentions 
and  hindrances  to  the  Gospel  which  follow  from  this 


76  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

mistake  are  all  around  us.  Thus  one  class  of  persons 
are  called  to  benevolent  works  by  the  divine  charity  of 
Christ,  but  in  their  zeal  for  man  they  may  not  realize 
sufficiently  that  the  charity  of  God  is  the  benevolence  of 
universal  law,  and  the  Christ  is  the  life  because  he  is 
also  the  truth.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  impressed  by 
the  order  and  grandeur  of  the  truths  of  revelation, 
repeatedly  fall  into  merely  doctrinal  definitions  of  Chris- 
tianity ;  and,  even  while  defending  from  supposed  error 
the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints,  they  narrow  that 
faith  into  a  theological  conception  of  Christianity  which 
may  have  indeed  much  of  the  truth,  but  little  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ.  This  kind  of  partial  apprehension  of 
Christianity  has  led  to  the  degradation  in  customary 
religious  speech  of  some  very  noble  expressions  of  the 
Scriptures.  For  example,  in  the  Epistles  the  phrases 
occur,  "sound  doctrine,"  "sound  in  the  faith,"  "hold 
fast  the  form  of  sound  words ; "  but  as  these  Biblical 
expressions  have  come  to  be  favorite  rallying  words  on 
the  lips  of  many  good  men,  their  original  largeness  and 
force  have  been  lost.  Men  often  mean  now  by  them, 
Keep  fast  your  doctrinal  beliefs ;  be  sound  in  your  creed. 
Paul  meant  vastly  more  by  them  than  that.  He  meant 
to  exhort  converts,  exposed  to  all  the  lusts  and  sins  of  a 
Pagan  world,  to  be  sound  believers ;  to  be  men  of  sound 
Christian  faith  ;  to  live  according  to  the  healthful  doc- 
trine of  Christ ;  to  consent  to  "  the  healthy  words,"  he 
says,  "  even  the  words  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and 
the  doctrine  which  is  according  to  godliness."  You  will 
notice,  if  you  read  these  phrases  in  their  context,  that 
they  occur  usually  in  the  midst  of  very  plain  words 


Real  Christianity,  77 

against  some  well-known  sins.  When  the  Apostle  is 
speaking  about  liars,  and  men-stealers,  and  false  swearers, 
he  completes  his  catalogue  of  sins  by  the  general  phrase, 
"  or  any  other  thing  contrary  to  the  sound  doctrine." 
Of  men  who  heap  to  themselves  teachers  after  their  own 
lusts,  he  says,  "  They  will  not  endure  the  sound  doctrine." 
When  he  is  describing  the  character  of  the  good  bishop, 
one  not  self-willed,  no  brawler,  no  striker,  a  man  not 
always  upon  the  platform  of  contention,  the  hospitable 
lover  of  the  good,  the  sober-minded,  just,  holy,  temper- 
ate man ;  it  is  of  this  good  man,  and  his  life  according 
to  Christ,  that  the  Apostle  says :  '^  Holding  to  the  faith- 
ful word  which  is  according  to  the  teaching,  that  he  may 
be  able  both  to  exhort  in  the  sound  doctrine,  and  to 
convict  the  gainsayers."  Let  us  beware  how  we  dwarf 
these  large  Biblical  expressions  to  the  littleness  of  some 
small  image  of  Christianity  which  we  may  have  fash- 
ioned for  ourselves,  and  set  up  for  all  the  rest  of  the 
Church  to  bow  down  to  and  to  worship.  It  is,  indeed, 
a  great  thing  to  be  what  Paul  meant  by  a  man  sound  in 
the  faith ;  what  a  character  confirmed  in  the  truth  of 
Christ,  growing  in  knowledge  of  God,  beaming  with 
grace,  full  of  good  works,  must  he  have  who  is  sound 
in  the  faith  according  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ. 

I  remark,  in  the  third  place,  Christianity  is  that  good 
thing  which  we  have  received  from  Christ.  In  other 
words,  Christianity  is  not  a  spirit  merely,  or  idea,  or 
influence,  which  we  still  call  by  the  name  of  Christ,  but 
Avhich  we  may  receive  and  even  enhance  without  further 
reference  to  the  historic  Christ.  Christianity  is  more 
than  a  spirit  of  the  times,  more  than  a  memory  of  a  life 


78  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

for  men,  more  than  a  distillation  in  modern  literature  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  IMount,  more  than  a  fragrance  of  the 
purest  of  lives  pervading  history  and  grateful  still  to 
our  refined  moral  sense.  Jesus  once  said  before  the 
chief  among  the  people,  "  I  receive  not  honor  from 
men ; "  and  the  patronage  of  culture  cannot  make  for 
our  wants  and  sins  a  Christ  from  the  Father.  Chris- 
tianity is  the  direct  continuation  of  the  life  and  the  work 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in  the  world.  It  cannot  be  sepa- 
rated from  the  Christ  of  the  Gospels.  He  came  from 
God ;  he  lived  on  earth  a  heavenly  life ;  he  conquered 
sin  ;  he  rose  from  the  dead ;  he  sent  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  show  them  unto  the 
Apostles ;  his  Church  grew  up,  and  continues  to  this 
day,  grounded  upon  the  historic  facts  of  his  life  and 
work  of  redemption  ;  its  two  simple  sacraments  are  the 
perpetual  signs  of  what  God  has  done  for  the  regenera- 
tion of  the  world ;  its  Sabbath  day,  the  Lord's  day,  is 
the  calm,  steadfast  witness,  through  the  hurrying  wrecks 
of  the  centuries,  to  the  effect  upon  the  minds  of  eye- 
witnesses of  the  resurrection  of  the  Lord  of  gloiy. 
Christianity  is  not  like  the  best  essence  of  other  religions, 
an  ideal  merely,  a  fragrance  frojn  a  broken  vase ;  it  is  a 
present  fact ;  it  is  the  vital  fact  of  history ;  it  is  an  ulti- 
mate fact  of  experience  to  be  explained  only  by  itself. 
It  cannot  be  analyzed  into  other  facts  and  understood  as 
a  combination,  or  passing  mode,  of  other  forces.  Chris- 
tianity is  a  fact  of  redemption,  like  nature,  according  to 
law,  yet  divinely  original  as  the  creation.  God  only  is 
before  the  established  order  both  of  nature  and  grace. 
Christianity,  past,  present,  future,  beginning  with  what 


Real  Christianity.  79 


Jesus  began  to  do,  continuing  with  what  men  may  be 
and  do  in  his  name,  and  looking  forward  to  the  king- 
dom of  God  which  is  to  be  its  full  and  final  realization — 
Christianity,  I  say,  is  the  one  absolute  fact  of  human 
history,  central,  supreme,  and  indissoluble  into  other 
facts  or  forces. 

Hence,  it  would  be  a  vain  expectation  to  imagine  that 
the  world  can  long  retain  the  influence  of  Christ,  the 
healing  aroma  of  Christianity,  and  let  the  Jesus  of  the 
Gospels  fade  into  a  myth.  Christianity,  uprooted  from 
its  source  in  divine  facts  of  redemption,  would  be  but  as  a 
cut  flower,  still  pervading  for  a  while  our  life  with  its 
-.charity,  but  another  day  even  its  perfume  would  have 
vanished.     The  Christianity  of  Christ  is  a  living  love. 

In  the  fourth  place,  Christianity  is  a  changed  relation- 
ship of  human  souls  to  God  through  Christ.  Go  back 
to  the  beginning  of  Christianity  to  find  out  what  it  is. 
It  began  to  exist  on  earth  first  upon  the  afternoon  of  a 
certain  day  when  the  last  of  the  Hebrew  prophets,  look- 
ing upon  Jesus  as  he  walked,  said,  "  Behold  the  Lamb 
of  God.''  And  two  of  his  disciples  heard  him  speak, 
and  they  followed  Jesus.  That  was  the  beginning  of 
Christianity  on  earth — not,  indeed,  what  John  the  Bap- 
tist said,  but  what  those  men  did,  when  they  at  once  put 
John's  truth  into  action,  and  followed  Jesus.  Those  two 
disciples,  going  from  John,  and  following  Christ,  signify 
the  beginning  of  Christianity.  Recall  what  that  act 
was  to  them.  They  were  not  bad  men  suddenly  reform- 
ing. They  had  not  been  godless  men.  They  were  good 
Hebrews.  Nathanael,  who  made  the  fifth  Christian,  was 
a  man  without  guile.     These  men  had  been  trying  to 


8o  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

live  aright  towards  their  God.  But  when  they  joined 
themselves  to  Christ,  they  began  to  live  in  a  very  differ- 
ent relation  towards  their  God.  They  were  soon  taught 
to  pray  to  him  as  ^'  Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven." 
They  found  erelong  that  the  Son  of  man  whom  they 
followed  had  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins.  They 
would  not  have  hereafter  to  bring  sacrifices  to  the  temple 
at  Jerusalem.  One  solemn  evening  the  Master  gathered 
them  and  a  few  others,  twelve  in  all,  who  had  attached 
themselves  to  him,  in  an  upper  chamber,  and  brake 
bread,  and  filled  the  cup,  and  in  words  which  then  they 
could  hardly  realize,  but  with  an  authority  which  they 
durst  not  question,  let  them  know — afterwards  they 
understood  it — that  he  himself  was  God's  own  offering 
for  sin ;  that  for  his  sake  God  would  come  very  near  to 
them,  forgiving  all,  and  taking  them  freely  into  the 
communion  of  His  own  Holy  Spirit  who  should  descend 
upon  them  at  Pentecost  with  visible  signs  of  the  new 
Christian  era.  These  men  are  now  like  new  men  in 
another  world  ;  in  Christ's  presence  all  divine  things 
seem  possible  to  them ;  they  are  changed  from  the  centre 
and  core  of  their  being ;  they  are  verily  born  again,  for 
they  live  henceforth  lives  as  different  from  their  former 
lives  before  they  came  to  Christ  as  though  they  had 
actually  died  out  of  this  world,  and  come  back  to  it 
again  with  the  memory  in  their  hearts  of  a  better  world. 
After  a  few  years  in  Jesus'  companionship,  after  all  that 
they  had  witnessed  of  his  death  and  resurrection,  they 
are  themselves  as  men  belonging  to  another  world, 
citizens  of  a  better  country,  sojourning  for  a  brief 
season  here.      ^^  Old  things  are  passed  away,"  says  the 


Real  Christianity,  8i 


last-born  of  the  Apostles;  "Behold,  all  things  are 
become  new.''  This,  then,  is  Christianity — Peter,  and 
John,  and  other  men,  living  with  Christ  in  a  new  rela- 
tionship to  God.  It  is  a  happy,  hopeful,  all-transfigur- 
ing relationship  of  human  souls  to  God.  Christ  giving 
his  Spirit  to  the  disciples,  disciples  witnessing  of  the 
Christ — this,  this  is  Christianity.  This  is  the  new  life 
in  the  changed  world  which  we  call  Christianity.  This 
is  that  good  thing  committed  unto  us  which  we  are  to 
guard,  as  his  Holy  Spirit  dwells  in  us. 

What,  then,  is  Christianity?  It  is,  we  say,  the  doctrine 
of  Christ.  What  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ?  Men 
sound  in  the  faith;  men  made  whole,  men  living 
according  to  Christ.  The  doctrine  of  Christ  is  not  a 
word,  or  a  system  of  words.  It  is  not  a  book,  or  a 
collection  of  writings.  Purposely  Jesus  wrote  only 
upon  the  sand.  He  left  not  one  word  written  on  parch- 
ment for  men  afterwards  to  worship.  He  left  with  us 
no  temptation  to  idolatry  of  the  letter.  He  wrote  his 
doctrine  in  the  book  of  human  life.  He  made  men  his 
Scriptures.  His  doctrine  was  the  teaching  of  the  living 
Spirit.  The  doctrine  of  Christ — lo !  Peter,  the  tempestu- 
ous man,  strong  one  moment  and  weak  another,  become 
now  a  man  of  steady  hope,  confessor,  and  martyr — he 
is  the  doctrine  of  Christ !  The  son  of  thunder  become 
the  apostle  of  love — he  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ!  The 
persecutor  become  one  who  dies  daily  for  the  salvation 
of  the  Gentiles — he  is  the  doctrine  of  Christ !  Jesus  left 
these  men,  and  other  disciples  like  them,  to  do  the  nec- 
essary writing  that  other  ages  might  know  for  certainty 
of  his  life,  and  receive  the  truths  which  are  the  expres- 

6 


82  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

sions  of  liis  personal  Gospel  to  man  from  God  the 
Father.  The  Spirit  was  bestowed  upon  them  sufficiently 
to  enable  them  to  give  us  these  Christian  Scriptures  as 
our  supreme  authorities  for  the  words  and  teachings  of 
Jesus;  but  the  Bible  is  not  Christianity.  Jesus  left 
inspired  men  to  make  the  Bible ;  he  himself  made 
Christianity;  and  the  Christianity  which  Christ  made 
and  is  ever  making,  shall  endure ;  it  shall  be  the  king- 
dom of  Christ  given  up  to  God  the  Father  after  this 
world  shall  be  among  the  things  of  the  past ;  and  then, 
in  the  presence  of  the  Lord,  seeing  the  glory  that  excell- 
eth,  we  shall  have  no  further  need  of  the  partial  reve- 
lations of  prophets  and  apostles,  of  the  Bible  we  used  on 
earth. 

What  is  Christianity  ?  I  have  been  seeking  for  a  real 
definition.  I  have  said.  It  is  the  disciple  with  the 
Master,  or  the  disciple  with  God,  as  never  before, 
through  the  Christ.  But  this  is  not  all.  The  divine 
reality  is  always  beyond  the  human  speech  that  would 
overtake  it. 

Once  more,  fifthly,  Christianity  is  the  company  of 
disciples  in  new  relationship  with  one  another,  and 
towards  all  men,  through  Christ. 

Christianity  originated  on  earth  with  two  disciples, 
not  one.  And  the  two  disciples,  we  read,  heard  him 
speak,  and  they  followed  Jesus.  Then  one  of  these  two 
findeth  his  own  brother  Simon  and  tells  him  of  the 
Messiah.  The  next  day  Jesus  findeth  another  ready  to 
follow  him,  and  he  goes  at  once  and  findeth  Nathanael. 
Thus  Christianity,  the  day  afler  it  began  to  exist,  con- 
sisted of  five  persons  following  Christ — his  men  bound 


Real  Christianity,  83 

in  an  altogether  new  relationship  to  each  other  by  their 
newly-found  relationship  to  the  Messiah  !  So  the  new 
society  was  constituted  in  the  first  act  of  faith  in  Christ. 
Christianity  in  its  beginning  was  a  human  companion- 
ship in  a  divine  friendship.  Having  thus  begun  as  a 
society,  Christianity  at  once  grew  and  spread  according 
to  its  original  genius  of  fellowship.  Less  than  four  years 
after  the  two  found  the  Messiah,  we  read  of  some  three 
thousand  souls  who  continued  in  the  teaching  and  fellow- 
ship of  the  apostles,  and  all  that  believed  were  together. 
It  is  not  enough,  therefore,  when  we  say  that  Christians 
and  churches  have  social  needs  and  duties.  Society  is 
of  the  very  essence  of  Christianity.  The  new  redeemed 
society  is  Christianity.  A  man  cannot  be  a  Christian, 
at  least  not  a  whole  Christian,  by  himself  alone.  To 
seek  to  live  a  Christian  life  by  one's  self,  in  the  secrecy  of 
one's  own  heart,  is  an  endeavor  foreign  to  the  original 
genius  of  Christianity.  Christianity,  when  it  is  finished, 
will  be  the  best  society  gathered  from  all  the  ages,  the 
perfect  society  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  How  can  a 
man  expect  to  fit  himself  for  that  blessed  society  by 
neglecting  here  and  now  to  enter  into  the  fellowship  of 
believers  who  seek  to  prepare  themselves  for  that  final 
society  of  the  Lord  by  meeting  and  breaking  bread 
together  at  his  table  ? 

Remember,  Christianity  is  first  two  disciples  following 
Jesus ;  then  twelve  confessing  the  Christ ;  then  seventy 
going  forth  in  his  name;  then  some  three  thousand 
receiving  his  Spirit  and  being  all  together ;  and  now  a 
goodly  company  gathering  in  Christ's  name  from  every 
land;   and  at  last,  at  last,  the  city  of  God,  and  the 


84  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

nations  of  them  which  are  saved  walking  in  the  light 
of  it,  and  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  as  the  voice 
of  many  waters,  saying,  "Alleluiah :  for  the  Lord  God 
omnipotent  reigneth  ! '' 

To  be  a  Christian,  therefore,  is  to  be  actually  a  follower 
of  Christ  with  his  disciples.  I  say  actually,  because  men 
may  follow  Christ  only  with  their  thoughts,  or  their 
wishes,  or  their  feelings,  ideally,  sentimentally,  litur- 
gically ;  but  those  first  two  disciples  really  follo^ved  him, 
and  they  left  everything  else  in  order  to  continue  follow- 
ing the  Messiah  whom  they  had  found.  And  so  may 
we  be  actual  followers,  though  he  leads  us  now  along 
his  way  of  life  not  by  wonder  of  visible  appearance  before 
us,  but  quietly  by  his  Spirit.  This  is  only  saying,  in  other 
words,  that  it  is  not  so  difficult,  it  certainly  is  not  impos- 
sible for  us,  in  the  real  purposes  of  our  own  hearts  and 
in  the  common  daily  circumstances  of  our  lives  to  decide 
what  is  Christian — what  is  the  most  Christlike  thought 
to  think,  the  most  Christlike  feeling  to  cherish,  the  true, 
Christlike  thing  to  be  done.  But  to  be  Christian  in  this 
real  way  will  require  sincere  repentance  from  sin,  an 
actual,  not  sentimental,  struggle  against  selfishness,  and 
a  tliorough-going  committal  of  ourselves  in  everything 
to  the  will  of  God  in  Christ  for  us.  And  to  make  real  and 
not  merely  nominal  work  of  it  we  shall  need  often  with 
deliberate  resolution  to  give  ourselves  up  to  our  own 
faiths,  to  throw  ourselves  manfully  upon  their  current, 
and  to  let  them  catch  us  up  and  bear  us  whither  they 
will.  Believers  too  often  stand  doubting  and  hesitating 
upon  the  edge  of  their  own  faith,  not  ready  to  trust  them- 
selves to  its  sti-eam.     The  workl  behind  them  is  a  hope- 


Real  Christianity.  85 

less  tangle ;  there  is  no  way  out  there ;  plunge  back  into 
it,  and  they  will  have  to  return,  panting  and  torn  by  the 
thicket ; — the  only  way  out  from  the  pathless  perplexities 
of  nature  is  to  follow  the  course  of  that  pure  faith  which 
flows  through  nature  like  the  river  of  life.  Take  to  the 
stream;  keep  well  in  its  current;  beyond  the  rapids, 
beyond  the  wild  wood  and  the  gloom  of  the  shadows,  are 
the  broad  lake,  the  habitable  fields,  and  the  sunset. 
What  we  need  as  professing  Christians  is  not  to  waste 
so  much  time  standing  still,  shivering  upon  the  borders 
of  the  faith  whose  promise  runs  before  us ;  we  need  to 
commit  ourselves  wholly  to  our  own  Christian  beliefs ; 
to  launch  our  lives  upon  them ;  to  work,  and  to  enjoy 
to-day,  as  though  there  is  a  God  who  is  thoughtful  of  us 
as  we  are  of  our  children ;  to  fight  triumphantly  the  evil 
nature  of  man  in  the  assurance  that  sin  is  forgiven,  and 
there  is  a  crown  of  life  waiting  for  him  that  overcometh ; 
to  meet  the  anxiety  of  to-day  mth  the  larger  trust  for 
eternity;  and,  taking  our  immortality  for  granted,  to 
plan  every  day  for  it,  laying  up  in  our  o^vn  enlarging 
hearts,  and  in  our  friends,  the  treasures  of  heaven. 

One  word  of  application  more.  The  fact  that  Chris- 
tianity is  essentially  society,  the  one  true  society  of  earth 
and  heaven,  is  a  fact  full  of  present  duty  for  us.  As  the 
Christian  cannot  be  a  whole  Christian  by  himself  alone, 
so  no  church  can  be  the  true  Church  by  itself  alone. 
Christianity  is  that  good  thing  which  is  in  all  the 
churches.  It  is  "  that  large  thing  in  the  midst  of  all  the 
churches  "  to  which  many  hopeful  eyes  are  now  turning. 
Our  particular  tenets  and  methods  of  administration  are 
not  of  the  essence  of  Christianity.     The  peculiarity  of  no 


S6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

church  in  Christendom  belongs  to  the  eternal  substance 
of  Christianity.  These  things  of  government,  worship, 
and  denominational  confession,  are  the  temporary  forms, 
or  accidents,  of  the  Christianity  of  Christ.  And  what 
the  world  needs  now  is  less  of  our  forms  of  Christianity, 
and  more  of  the  real  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
missionary  energy  which  seeks  to  gather  from  all  nations 
the  new  society  belongs  to  the  Christianity  of  Christ. 
His  also  is  the  Christianity  which  in  a  city  seeks  to  save 
men  from  sin  and  suffering,  and  to  bring  all  classes  of 
people  together  in  a  new  society  in  the  one  sufficient  Name. 
That  is  not  the  Christianity  of  Christ  which  is  content 
with  filling  its  own  pew,  and  letting  the  rest  of  the  world 
find  its  Messiah  if  it  can.  That  good  thing  committed 
unto  us  guard.  There  were  two  ways  during  the 
war  of  guarding  the  national  capitol.  One  was  by 
keeping  a  large  body  of  troops  in  the  fortifications  around 
Washington  at  the  peril  of  the  army  in  the  field.  The 
other  way  was  by  supplying  first  the  army  in  the  field, 
sending  them  forth  where  the  enemy  were,  and  caring 
secondly  for  the  home  fortifications.  The  latter  Avay 
saved  Washington,  while  it  took  Richmond.  This  also 
is  the  best  way  now  for  us  to  guard  the  Christianity  of 
our  churches.  They  best  defend  the  faith  once  delivered 
to  the  saints  who  do  the  most  brave  and  aggressive  work 
against  the  actual  sins  and  real  denials  of  the  world. 
And  if,  in  any  critical  period  of  faith,  it  may  be  neces- 
sary for  us,  along  some  lines  of  doctrinal  attack  or 
defense,  to  achieve  that  most  difficult  of  military 
manoeuvres,  to  change  front  under  fire ;  if  those  who 
observe  coolly  where  the  strength  of  unbelief  lies,  and 


Real  Christianity,  87 

from  what  direction  the  real  peril  of  faith  comes,  do 
counsel  some  change  of  doctrinal  front  to  protect  exposed 
positions ;  let  the  churches  follow,  hopefully  and  bravely, 
without  firing  into  our  own  ranks,  in  order  that  we  may 
still  guard,  as  good  soldiers,  that  which  is  committed  to 
our  trust. 


VII. 

THE  CHRIST-LIKENESS  OF  GOD. 

"  j^or  lo  lf)i's  JDitb  toe  Itrbor  anir  siviht,  iitRUSt  hot  ta^t  our  f)op« 
Ett  on  l!)£  libln^  (Etotj,  to^o  (s  tf)t  %ahiom  of  all  mm,  spwiallg  of  Ificnt 
t!)at  bclicbc." — i  Tim.  iv.  lo. 

There  is  latent  in  this  Scripture  a  double  energy  of 
truth  which  the  providence  of  God  is  now  calling  forth 
for  the  more  thorough  Christianization  of  Christianity. 
An  historic  power  of  Hebrew  faith  is  in  this  Biblical 
expression,  "  The  living  God ; "  and  there  is  further 
Christian  energy  of  truth  in  these  words,  "  Who  is  the 
Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  them  that  believe." 
God  is  living,  now,  here,  on  earth,  everywhere;  and 
God  is  our  Saviour.  Christ  is  usually  called  Saviour ; 
but  this  name  of  Christ  the  apostle  here  transfers 
directly  to  God.  In  several  texts  God  is  called  our 
Saviour.  God,  then,  is  to  us  what  Christ  is.  God 
himself,  then,  is  essentially  Christlike.  He  must  have 
in  Himself  some  Christ-likeness,  for  He  is,  as  Christ,  our 
Saviour.  Let  the  energy  of  these  two  truths  once  enter 
into  a  man's  heart — the  truth  that  in  everything  we 
have  to  do  with  the  living  God,  and  the  truth  that  our 
G(xl  is  the  Christlike  One,  and  they  are  enough  to 
revolutionize  a  man's  life.  These  two  truths  of  God's 
living  Presence  and  Christ-likeness  have  always  been 
hidden  in  the  practical  theology  of  the  Church.  They 
88 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God,  89 

have  not  always  come  to  their  proper  recognition  in  the 
speculative  thought  or  reasoned  theology  of  the  Church ; 
but  they  belong  to  the  substance  of  the  faith  once 
delivered  to  the  saints  ;  and  even  amid  doctrinal  errors, 
or  unworthy  thoughts  of  God,  they  have  survived  in 
the  trusting  heart  of  God's  people. 

These  truths,  that  God  is  the  living  Presence,  and 
that  God  is  Christian  in  all  the  depths  and  glories  of 
his  being,  are  truths  now  seizing  upon  our  religious 
thought,  and  pervading  our  best  religious  literature  with 
new  power  of  the  Spirit.  The  revival  of  theology, 
which  is  growing  in  grace  and  knowledge  of  God  in 
this  country,  is  energized  by  these  convictions  that  God 
is  here  and  now,  the  Kving  God ;  and,  I  say  it  reverently, 
that  the  Almighty  Lord  and  Ruler  of  this  universe  is  a 
Christian  Being.  In  all  our  reasoning  and  speech  about 
divinity  and  human  destiny,  we  need  to  recognize  simply 
and  fully  this  essential  fact  of  revelation  that  our  God 
— the  living  God — is  of  all  beings  the  most  profoundly 
and  really  Christian.  At  all  times,  and  in  all  relations, 
we  are  to  conceive  of  God  both  as  the  living  Presence, 
and  as  the  Christlike  One. 

Let  me  seek  in  this  sermon  to  bring  our  minds  into 
some  contact  with  the  energy  of  these  truths,  latent  in 
this  and  many  another  text,  so  that  we  may  find  our 
thoughts  lighted  up  by  this  Scripture,  and  may  go  hence 
to  stronger  lives. 

First :  Our  hope  is  set  on  the  living  God.  This  is  a 
familiar  Biblical  phrase.  But  it  was  not  a  phrase  merely 
to  those  men  whom  Moses  urged  to  right  living,  as  he 
said  :  "  For  who  is  there  of  all  flesh  that  hath  heard  the 


90  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

voice  of  the  living  God  speaking  out  of  the  midst  of  the 
fire,  as  we  have,  and  lived  ?  "  This  word,  the  living 
God,  had  not  become  an  echo  of  a  vanishing  faith  to  the 
Psalmist,  longing  for  the  communion  of  the  temple,  who 
uttered  IsraeFs  national  consciousness  in  this  prayer : 
"  My  soul  longeth,  yea,  even  fainteth  for  the  courts  of 
the  Lord :  my  heart  and  my  flesh  crieth  out  for  the 
living  God."  It  was  a  word  intense  with  faith,  when 
Simon  Peter  looked  up  into  the  eye  of  Jesus  Christ  who 
stood  before  him,  flashing  his  divinity  like  a  glory  into 
his  soul,  and  asking,  "  But  whom  say  ye  that  I  am  ?  " 
and  Simon  Peter  answered,  and  said,  "  Thou  art  the 
Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  It  was  not  a  mere 
refrain  of  exalted  religious  sentiment,  but  a  part  of  the 
liturgy  of  glad  lives,  when  Apostles,  and  those  first 
Christians,  swelled  the  chorus  of  faith  in  the  midst  of 
persecutions  with  these  triumphant  words  :  "  We  trust 
in  the  living  God ; — God  our  Saviour,  and  Christ  Jesus 
our  hope ; — ye  are  come  unto  Mount  Zion,  and  unto  the 
city  of  the  living  God." 

At  different  periods  in  the  history  of  the  Church,  the 
Spirit  whom  Christ  promised  should  lead  his  disciples 
into  all  truth  seems  to  have  fixed  the  mind  of  the 
Church  upon  some  particular  truth  which  was  needed  at 
that  special  time  for  man's  groAvth  in  the  knowledge  of 
God.  Thus,  in  the  first  centuries,  the  mind  of  the  early 
Church  was  riveted  upon  the  nature  of  the  wondrous 
person  of  Christ ;  and  the  Nicene  creed  was  the  result 
of  three  centuries  of  thought  about  Christ.  In  the  Ref- 
ormation the  truths  of  free  grace  and  the  sole  sovereignty 
of  God  became  the   strengthening   bread  of    life   for 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God.  91 

believers.  God  leads  his  people  at  different  times  to  dif- 
ferent phases  and  powers  of  the  truth  according  to  their 
present  need.  And  is  not  his  Spirit  still  leading  us,  if 
we  will  put  away  our  own  opinions,  and  seek  to  learn 
those  things  of  Christ  which  for  our  own  peril  of  faith 
we  need  to  have  shown  to  us  ?  Certainly  it  is  noticeable 
at"  the  present  time  how  many  minds  in  different  parts 
of  the  Christian  world  are  being  led  to  deeper  convic- 
tions of  the  personal  nearness  of  the  Father,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  into  a  reviving  faith  in  the  pure  Christ-like- 
ness of  the  Almighty  God.  I  will  not  pause  now  even 
to  glance  down  those  inviting  ways  of  thought  along 
which  many  minds  are  being  led  straight  through  this 
material  system  of  things  out  into  beKef  in  the  spiritual 
omnipresence  of  God.  The  philosopher  of  largest  intel- 
lect which  Germany  has  produced  for  many  years — a 
man  trained  both  as  a  physician  and  a  metaphysician, 
who  has  not  long  since  gone  hence  into  the  unseen — 
Hermann  Lotze — became  so  firmly  impressed  with 
the  omnipresence  of  Spirit  in  the  creation,  that  he 
thought  it  impossible  to  conceive  of  the  mechanical  rela- 
tions of  things,  of  the  communication  even  of  motion 
between  two  wheels,  without  the  hypothesis  of  a  spir- 
itual element  behind  all  physical  things,  and  in  which 
all  things  consist. 

A  professor  of  chemistry,  with  whom  sometime  since 
I  was  talking  about  nature,  and  what  it  really  is,  said  to 
me,  thoughtfully  :  "  The  order  of  nature  is  God's  per- 
sonal conduct  of  his  universe."  It  is  not  with  a  dead 
nature,  or  an  ^  impersonal  order  of  laws,  but  with  the 
living  God  in  his  personal  and  most  Christian  conduct 


92  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

of  the  universe,  that  we  living  souls  have  to  do  here 
and  hereafter.  But  I  wish  at  this  time  to  dwell  more 
fully  upon  the  other  truth  of  our  text. 

Secondly :  Our  hope  is  set  on  the  living  God  our 
Saviour.  I  have  heard  in  the  class-room  of  a  theolog- 
ical seminary  much  brilliant  analysis  of  divinity  ;  that 
God  is,  or,  at  least,  was  in  the  beginning,  the  great  First 
Cause ;  that  he  is  in  all  probability  of  reason  the  Pre- 
server, Lawgiver  and  Judge ;  that  he  is  the  Trinit}^ ; 
that  he  has  various  attributes  and  perfections  which  he 
must  jealously  guard,  and  a  law  whose  honor  he  must 
maintain  in  justifying  sinners.  I  believe  that  these 
propositions  about  God  are,  for  the  most  part,  well-rea- 
soned and  true  ideas  of  divinity,  so  far  as  they  go.  But 
unless  from  his  Bible  and  through  his  life  a  man  has 
learned  to  know  something  of  God  himself — his  per- 
sonal nearness,  and  his  Christ-likeness — how  is  he  fit  to 
go  forth  and  preach  the  Gospel  ?  How  can  a  man 
preach  Jesus'  Gospel,  which  the  people  heard  gladly, 
unless,  in  some  way,  he  has  realized  in  his  own  heart 
what  perfect  and  blessed  Christ-likeness  God  is  ?  Unless 
he  can  look  up  into  the  silent  sky,  or  down  into  the 
lowest  depths  of  human  suffering  and  sin,  or  away  to 
the  ends  of  the  world,  and  say,  with  a  faith  into  which 
his  own  heart  has  grown,  and  in  which  his  reason  has 
learned  to  w^ait  expectant :  "  My  hope  is  set  on  the  living 
God,  who  is  the  Saviour  of  all  men,  specially  of  them 
that  believe?'' 

It  is  a  principle  of  far-reaching  sweep  and  recon- 
structive power  in  theology,  to  think  of  our  God  above 
all  as  most  Christlike  in  his  inmost  being  and  nature. 


The   Christ-likeness  of  God.  93 

God  is  in  Christ ;  God  is  showing  himself  to  the  world 
in  Christ;  God  is  himself  an  infinite  and  adorable 
Christ-likeness.  What  is  tliis  but  the  finished  and  com- 
plete Biblical  doctrine  of  God?  We  are  to  take  this 
truth,  therefore,  boldly  from  the  finished  Bible ;  and  in 
the  pure  light  of  it  we  should  read  every  chapter  and 
verse  in  the  Bible,  and  judge  the  Bible  by  it ;  we  should 
judge  the  Bible,  that  is,  by  its  own  final  and  perfect 
truth  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  Many  of  the  ideas 
and  traditions  of  men  which  prove  burdensome  to 
Christian  conscience  have  arisen  from  failure  to  read 
and  to  interpret  particular  Scriptures  in  the  light  of 
Christ's  final  and  perfect  disclosure  of  what  God  himself 
is.  Men  have  said  hard  things,  words  hard  to  be 
believed,  concerning  God  and  his  decrees,  because  in 
their  eager  reasonings  they  have  forgotten  the  truth 
which  all  the  while  they  believed  in  their  hearts,  that 
the  Almighty  Sovereign  of  this  universe  is  really  a 
Christian  God.  One  illustration  only  of  many  let  me 
recall. 

I  once  saw  in  the  city  of  Niirnberg,  I  think  it 
was,  a  religious  picture,  in  which  God  the  Father  was 
represented  in  heaven  as  shooting  down  arrows  upon 
the  ungodly,  and  midway  between  heaven  and  earth 
Christ,  the  Mediator,  was  depicted  as  reaching  forth  and 
catching  those  arrows,  and  breaking  them  as  they  fell. 
The  painting  was  true  to  methods  of  conceiving  Christ's 
work  of  atonement  into  which  faith  had  fallen  from  the 
simplicity  of  the  Bible ;  but  it  should  not  be  called  a 
Christian  picture.  "  God,  our  Saviour,"  said  Apostles 
who  had  seen  God  revealed  in  Christ ;  and  Jesus  him- 


94  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

self  once  said :  ^'  He  that  hath  seen  me,  liath  seen  the 
Father."  But  I  do  not  wish  to  linger  with  the  painful 
and  profitless  task  of  showing  how  easily  believers  may- 
fall  far  below  Christ's  revelation  of  the  Godhead. 
Rather  I  want  to  urge  you  to  a  constant  and  bold  habit 
of  thinking  of  your  God  as  he  has  disclosed  his  moral 
nature  to  the  world  as  most  thoroughly  and  adorably 
Christian. 

It  is  one  thing — and  an  important  thing — ^to  obtain 
from  the  Scriptures  some  adequate  doctrine  of  the 
divinity  of  Christ.  But  it  is  another  thing — and  prac- 
tically for  us  a  more  important  thing — to  have  God 
through  Christ  brought  as  a  living  and  inspiring  Presence 
into  direct  contact  with  all  our  plans  and  work  and 
happiness  in  life.  One  may  confess  with  his  lips  the 
equal  divinity  of  the  Son,  and  yet  not  have  the  Father 
through  the  Son  in  the  real  inspirations  of  his  life ;  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  there  are  those  who  have  touched,  as 
Ave  think,  but  the  hem  of  the  true  doctrine  of  the  person 
of  Christ,  yet  with  a  touch  of  faith  which  has  brought 
to  their  lives  a  healing  virtue.  That  poor  woman  who 
went  away  from  Christ  healed,  made  well  and  sound  for 
her  household  duties  by  her  touch  of  faith  upon  the 
hem  of  Jesus'  garment,  was  a  truer  Christian  than  a 
Nicodemus  who  knew  the  law,  and  heard  Jesus'  pro- 
foundest  truth  of  the  Spirit,  and  went  away  to  think 
about  it. 

In  sincere  acceptance  of  Jesus'  word  that  he  knew  the 
Father,  and  came  from  God,  let  us  read  the  Gospels  for 
the  purpose  of  learning  what  God  himself  is  towards  us 
in  our  daily  lives ;  how  our  world  appears  in  the  pure 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God.  95 

eye  of  God ;  how  he  thinks  of  us,  and  is  interested  in 
what  we  may  be  doing,  suffering,  or  achieving.  To  him 
who  came  forth  from  God  to  show  the  heart  of  deity 
towards  this  world  of  ours,  let  us,  too,  hasten  with  the 
multitude  who  gather  from  all  paths  around  Jesus  upon 
that  mountain-side.  We,  too,  have  been  trying  to  make 
ourselves  at  ease  and  happy  in  this  world,  and  we,  like 
these  other  men  whose  faces  are  marked  wath  anxieties 
and  cares,  have  not  found  life  the  satisfaction  w^iich  we 
want  it  to  be.  Jesus  opens  his  mouth  and  speaks ;  and, 
with  the  great  multitude  of  earth's  unsatisfied  children,  we 
listen  :  Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit ;  blessed  are  they 
that  mourn  ;  blessed  are  the  meek ;  blessed  are  the  merci- 
ful ;  blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart ;  blessed  are  the  peace- 
makers ;  blessed  are  they  that  have  been  persecuted ; — 
and  through  his  speech  of  blessing  run  these  words 
of  promise — strange,  some  of  them,  like  music  in  an 
unknown  tongue  to  us,  yet  all  so  real  to  him — the 
melody  of  his  own  wondrous  life — and  waking,  too,  in 
our  hearts  feelings  that  seem  like  reminiscences  of  some- 
thing beautiful,  once  known  and  lost — these  sweet,  pure 
words  of  promise :  For  theirs  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven ;  for  they  shall  be  comforted ;  for  they  shall 
inherit  the  earth ;  for  they  shall  obtain  mercy ;  for  they 
shall  see  God  ;  for  they  shall  be  called  sons  of  God ;  for 
theirs  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ;  rejoice  and  be  exceed- 
ing glad,  for  great  is  your  reward  in  heaven.  And  he 
who  oj)ens  his  mouth,  and  teaches  the  multitude,  utters 
God's  heart  to  us  upon  that  mountain-side.  This  is  God's 
own  blessedness  showing  itself  to  the  world.  Such  is 
God,  blessing  with  his  own  blessedness  the  virtue  which  is 


96  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

like  his  own  goodness.  Yes,  but  as  Jesus,  in  his  speech 
and  person,  realizes  God  before  us,  how  can  we  help 
becoming  conscious  of  our  distance  of  soul  from  perfec- 
tion so  divine?  Before  him  our  hearts  confess  their 
sinfulness ;  he  is  the  blessed  One  and  we  are  sinners,  lost 
how  far  from  his  pure  peace !  Listen  again  to  this 
Wonder  of  Being  from  above  who  has  said — and  no 
man  can  convince  him  of  sin  and  gainsay  his  witness  to 
himself — ^'I  and  my  Father  are  one/^  We  stand  in 
that  house  where  he  says  to  a  palsied  man  who  trusted 
him,  "Sou,  thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee;'^  and  when,  in 
our  surprise  we  ask,  under  our  breath,  "  Who  can  for- 
give sins  but  God  only?"  our  questioning  does  not 
escape  his  ear  who  hears  even  the  thoughts  of  our 
hearts.  "But  that  ye  may  know  that  the  Son  of  man 
hath  power  on  earth  to  forgive  sins  (then  saith  he  to  the 
sick  of  the  palsy,)  Arise,  take  up  thy  bed  and  go  unto 
thy  house."  He  speaks  for  God.  So  God  is  towards 
man  ;  this  word  is  from  the  bosom  of  the  Father ;  there 
is  on  earth  divine  forgiveness  of  sin.  But  the  fear  of 
death  is  here  in  this  world  of  sepulchres.  We  never 
know  when  our  homes  shall  be  broken  into  by  that  dread 
power  before  which  all  our  caution  and  all  our  art,  time 
and  again,  sink  helpless.  We  might  love  to  love  were  it 
not  for  death.  The  worst  thing  about  our  life  here  is, 
that  the  more  we  fit  our  hearts  for  the  highest  haj)piness 
of  friendships,  the  more  we  fit  ourselves,  also,  for  sorrow ; 
love  is  itself  the  short  prelude  so  oflen  to  a  long  mourn- 
ing. What  does  God  think  of  this?  AVhat  can  God 
in  heaven  think  of  us  in  our  bitter  mortality  ?  Follow 
again  this  Jesus  who  says  he  knows — and  surely  none 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God.  97 

of  us  has  virtue  enough  to  doubt  him — what  will  he 
show  God's  heart  to  be  towards  human  suifering  and 
death  ?  Lord,  show  us  in  this  respect  the  Father,  and 
it  sufficeth  us.  Numbered  with  the  great  multitude 
who  have  lost  friends  and  know  sorrow,  let  us  also  go 
with  this  Christ  from  God,  and  see  what  God  will  do 
with  sorrow  and  death.  There,  coming  slowly  out  of 
the  gate  of  the  city,  Ls  a  procession  of  much  people. 
We  do  not  need  to  be  told  their  errand ;  often  we  have 
followed  with  those  who  go  to  the  grave.  The  Christ 
who  says  he  knows  what  God  our  Father  is  and  thinks, 
meets  them  who  are  carrying  to  his  burial  the  only  son 
of  a  widow.  It  is  all  there,  the  whole  story  of  man 
and  woman's  grief.  The  husband  compelled,  perhaps 
years  ago,  to  leave  the  woman  whom  he  had  sw^orn  with 
his  souFs  truth  to  love  and  keep ;  and  she  left  perhaps 
with  a  mere  child  clinging  to  her  skirts  to  find  what  life 
she  could  from  a  world  too  eager  about  its  own  hard 
business  to  stop  to  shelter  her ;  and  now  that  the  boy 
has  grown,  and  come  in  some  measure  to  take  the  place 
of  the  father's  strength,  after  all  these  years  of  care  and 
toil,  he,  too,  is  dead.  Of  what  worth  is  life?  Yet 
still  death  is  cruel ;  he  snatches  youth  from  life's  fair 
promise,  and  leaves  the  widow,  with  worn-out  heart,  to 
years  of  emptiness.  The  Christ  sees  it  all ;  and  more 
than  all  which  disciples  see ; — he  looks  on  through  the 
years,  and  beholds  death's  broad  harvests,  and  the  gene- 
rations of  men  passing  each  from  earth  in  pain  and 
tears ;  the  whole  history  of  death  through  the  ages  he 
bears  upon  the  knowledge  of  his  heart.*     What,  then, 

*  I  would  acknowledge  an  indistinct  recollection  of  a  similar  use 

7 


98  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

does  God  on  high  think  and  mean  as  he  sees  the  mourn- 
ers going  forth  from  the  gates  of  every  city,  and  all  life 
here  ending,  like  this  young  man's,  in  silence  and  dark- 
ness ?  What  will  God  do  with  death  ?  "And  when  the 
Lord  saw  her,  he  had  compassion  on  her,  and  said  unto 
her,  Weep  not.  And  he  came  nigh  and  touched  the 
bier :  and  the  bearers  stood  still.  And  he  said,  Young 
man,  I  say  unto  thee,  Arise.  And  he  that  was  dead 
sat  up,  and  began  to  speak."  We  might  not  be  able 
to  credit  the  miracle,  if,  indeed,  death  be  the  last  law 
of  life;  if  the  miracle  were  an  exception  to  God's 
universal  plan  and  purpose  for  all  the  dead;  but  it 
is  not.  That  single  resurrection  is  not  an  exception, 
but  only  an  anticipation  of  the  higher  law  of  life  over 
death.  It  was  not  a  miracle,  but  only  an  illustration 
beforehand  of  the  larger  law  of  life.  While  the  widow 
wept,  while  the  sisters  of  his  friend  Lazarus  could 
not  be  comforted,  Jesus  knew  that  life  is  the  rule  in 
God's  great  universe,  and  death  the  exception.  The 
final  law  is  that  death  shall  be  swallowed  up  in  life,  and 
no  victory  of  death  be  left  at  last  in  any  earthly  grave. 
That  resurrection  of  the  widow's  son  is  not,  then,  a 
miracle,  but  a  prophecy  to  him  who  works  it.  It  is  not 
a  miracle,  but  only  an  anticipation  of  the  fulfillment  of 
his  will  from  eternity  to  the  living  God.  Christ  bidding 
that  woman,  weep  not ;  Christ  showing  by  anticipation 
the  power  of  the  eternal  life  is  the  representation  upon 
this  earth,  over  its  open  graves,  of  what  God  is  in 
heaven,  and  means  to  do  at  last  with  death.     So  God  is 

of  this  narrative  of  the  Gospel  in  a  sermon  which  I  heard  many 
years  ago  from  Newman  Hall,  but  which  I  cannot  find  in  print. 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God.  99 

towards  us  and  our  human  hearts.  Love  on  !  love 
well !  toil  on,  and  be  not  weary  !  I  am  the  resurrection 
and  the  life.  The  last  enemy  shall  be  destroyed ;  I  am 
tlie  living  God. 

Yes,  this  is  a  glad  Gospel  from  the  bosom  of  the 
Eternal ;  but  there  is  so  much  in  this  world  beside  death 
which  we  never  would  know  anything  more  of  in  any 
other  world.  This  earth  is  full  of  human  cruelty 
and  oppressions.  Man's  passion  would  lie  in  wait  to 
ruin  the  very  angels  if  it  could.  We  cannot  walk  on 
the  streets  of  any  city  in  the  world  without  seeing  signs 
of  suffering  and  the  wretched  work  of  sin.  And  we  can 
trust  the  world  around  us  only  a  little  way.  We  have 
formed  from  long  familiarity  with  life  an  instinct  which 
keeps  us  always  on  the  watch  against  the  lie.  We  want 
to  leave  our  own  self-deceptions  all  behind  us,  and  to 
lose  the  instinct  of  suspicion  in  another  world.  Let  us 
go,  then,  once  more  with  this  Jesus  into  the  city,  and  see 
what  he  will  do  with  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites. 
In  the  world  from  which  he  says  he  came,  and  into 
which  he  declares  he  is  going  soon — for  a  little  wdiile  to 
be  unseen  by  his  own  friends — in  that  world  will  he 
suffer  these  men  to  be  ?  "  Woe  unto  you,  scribes  and 
Pharisees,  hypocrites ; — How^  shall  ye  escape  the  judgment 
of  Gehenna  ?"  It  is  the  same  Christ  who  is  speaking, — 
he  whom  v/e  heard  saying.  Blessed,  and  in  words  which 
seemed  to  be  a  song  from  the  heart  of  his  own  life, — he 
\^'ho  went  weeping  with  the  sisters  at  Bethany, — who 
once  sent  that  procession  of  mourners  back  in  triumph 
and  joy  to  the  city.  It  is  he  who  now  stands  before 
those   extortioners  and   hypocrites,  and  says  in  God's 


lOO  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

name  :  "  Woe  unto  you  !  '^  It  is  enough.  The  face  of 
God  is  set  against  them  that  do  evil.  No  lie  shall  enter 
the  gates  of  that  city  of  the  many  homes.  Jesus  slkows 
God  the  Father  to  the  scribes  and  Pharisees,  hyppcrites. 
His  love,  so  pure,  so  luminous  with  all  joy,  so  deep  in 
its  eternal  peacefulness,  God  the  Father's  love,  is  and 
shall  be  forever  the  Gehenna  of  all  lies,  the  consuming 
fire  of  sin. 

Yes ; — but  again  our  human  thoughts  turn  this  bright 
hope  into  anxiety.  These  men  may  not  have  known. 
AVe  would  go  into  the  city  and  save  all.  AVe  would  let 
none  go  until  we  had  done  all  that  love  could  do ;  we 
would  not  suffer  any  man  to  be  lost  if  love  could  ever  find 
him  ?  How,  then,  does  Jesus  show  us  God  is  towards 
these  lost  ones  ?  Listen  ;  he  sees  a  shepherd  going  forth 
in  the  storm  over  the  bleak  mountain-side,  seeking  for  the 
one  lost  sheep  ;  and  this  Wonder  of  divinity  witli  man — 
he  w^ho  came  from  God  and  knows — says.  Such  is  God ; 
"  Even  so  it  is  not  the  will  of  your  Father  in  heaven,  that 
one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish."  This  is  the  pic- 
ture of  the  heart  of  God  drawn  by  Christ's  own  hand — the 
shepherd  seeking  tlie  one  lost  sheep.  And  there  is  a 
Scripture  of  an  inspired  Apostle  which  might  be  written 
beneath  that  picture  which  Jesus  drew  of  God's  dis- 
position towards  all  who  are  lost ; — '^  This  is  good  and 
acceptable  in  the  sight  of  God  our  Saviour;  who  willeth 
that  all  men  should  be  saved,  and  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth."  Upon  this  word  from  God  may  not  our 
questioning  fold  at  length  its  wings  and  rest?  Such  is 
God's  disposition  towards  all  men  ;  if  any  man  liath  not 
forgiveness  either  in  this  world,  or  the  world  to  come,  it 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God,  loi 

is  his  own  choice ;  it  is  his  own  sin,  and  that  not  against 
conscience  only,  but  against  all  that  God  could  reveal  to 
him  of  his  spirit  and  will  of  love — the  sin  not  against 
the  law  of  nature  merely,  but  the  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost.  Observing  in  our  creeds  the  reserve,  as  well  as 
the  moral  positiveness  of  revelation,  and  giving  now 
earnest  heed  to  these  warnings  and  these  woes  of  Christ- 
like love,  w^e  can  suffer  many  questions  to  remain 
unanswered  in  this  world,  because  we  believe  in  the 
eternal  Christ-will  of  God,  and  are  sure,  although  we 
cannot  in  all  cases  see  how,  that  God  will  in  the  end, 
before  the  judgment  day,  have  shown  himself  to  all  souls 
to  be  the  most  Christian  God. 

Two  consequences  of  these  truths  remain  to  be 
urged.  God  himself  is  to  be  seen  through  Clirist, 
and  Christ  is  to  be  studied  through  all  that  is  best 
and  worthiest  in  the  disciples'  lives.  Therefore  through 
human  hearts  also  which  reflect  in  any  wise  Christ's 
spirit,  we  may  seek  to  realize  what  God  is.  God 
is  what  they  would  be,  only  infinitely  better;  his 
perfection  is  like  man's,  only  infinitely  transcending 
it.  Let  us  be  very  bold  in  this  living  way  of  access 
to  God.  Truly  has  it  been  said  that  the  command, 
Be  ye  therefore  perfect,  even  as  your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven  is  perfect,  may  reverently  be  turned  the  other  way ; 
and  any  human  approach  towards  perfection  be  made  the 
image  of  what  God  is.  The  golden  rule  wliich  Christ 
gives  to  us  as  the  measure  of  all  our  morality,  is  a  rule 
which  he  took  from  his  knowledge  of  God's  own  personal 
conduct  of  his  universe.  To  the  least  of  his  creatures 
God  will  do  what  he  would  have  done  unto  him,  if  the 


I02  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

creature  were  God.  And  so  a  living  Christian  preacher 
has  taken  that  rare  chapter  in  the  epistle  to  the  Corinthi- 
ans upon  charity,  and  made  that  conversely  the  Christian 
mirror  of  God.  Surely  our  love  is  but  reflection  of  his 
light  in  which  no  darkness  is.  Through  that  cliapter  of 
love  not  only  look  out  upon  your  neighbor,  but  also  up 
towards  God.  Where  will  you  find  a  clearer  telescope 
to  bring  the  heavens  of  his  glory  near  ?  Interpret  what 
God  is — what  his  law  and  commandments  are — ^through 
these  inspired  words  ; — "  If  I  speak  with  the  tongues 
of  men  and  of  angels,  but  have  not  love,  I  am  become 
sounding  brass,  or  a  clanging  cymbal.  If  I  have  not 
love,  I  am  nothing.''  Read  that  of  God  himself.  For 
surely  He  would  not  have  us  be  what  he  is  not.  Yet 
look  not  through  the  words  merely  up  to  God.  Make 
these  words,  make  Christ's  life,  most  real  to  you,  by 
finding  out  the  best  and  truest  things  in  human  homes, 
in  the  best  men,  in  the  most  Christlike  friends  you  have 
ever  known  ;  understand  better  your  own  most  unselfish 
impulses,  or  deepest  needs,  or  noblest  desires,  and  then 
with  these — all  imperfect  colors  though  they  be,  yet 
with  these — dare  to  imagine  for  yourself  the  Jesus  who 
walked  in  beauty,  in  the  midst  of  our  sin,  pure  and  unde- 
filed,  showing  in  everything  God's  thought  and  heart. 
Be  very  bold  in  this  truest,  human  thought  of  the  living 
God.  For  what  has  God  come  down  to  us  in  the  form 
of  man,  even  of  a  servant,  if  he  would  not  have  us 
come  up  thus  to  him  and  know  him  as  he  has  revealed 
hinoself  in  Christ,  and  all  Christlike  things  ?  Such  is 
the  God  whom  we  are  to  have  in  all  our  thoughts ; — not 
God  far  off;  not  God  an  unknown  Cause  before  all 


The  Christ-likeness  of  God,  103 

things ;  not  God  hidden  from  us  in  the  unutterable 
glory  of  his  own  deity ;  but  God  in  Christ  reconciling 
the  world  unto  himself ;  God  near  to  every  one  of  us  as 
Jesus  was  to  that  disciple  who  leaned  upon  his  bosom ; 
God  in  Christ,  God  most  Cliristlike  then,  the  Christian 
God. 

And  just  this  word  more,  for  my  sermon  would  lack 
the  one  thing  necessary  to  secure  it  all  without  this 
further  word.  God  is  in  Christ.  God,  I  have  been 
saying,  is  Christian,  essentially  and  eternally  Christian. 
Therefore  if  you  would  know  God,  you  must  live 
according  to  Christ.  Every  sin  is  so  much  ignorance  of 
God.  Through  goodness  only  can  He  who  is  the  Good 
be  known.  To  know  God  our  Saviour  we  must  become 
Christlike.  If  any  man  have  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ, 
he  is  none  of  his. 


VIII. 

KNOWLEDGE  OF  SELF  THROUGH  CHRIST. 

"2lnb   tf)«   iorlJ  iuxnti3,  ants   look^ir   upon   3^tUx.     ^ni   3^tUt 
ttmtmUxitii." — Luke  xxii.  6i. 

It  was  in  a  flash  of  divinity  upon  him  that  Peter  dis- 
covered his  own  loss  of  manliness.  The  Lord  turned 
and  looked  upon  Peter.  The  divine  man  looking  with 
the  clear  eye  of  truth  upon  him  revealed  Peter  to  him- 
self. One  look  of  the  Lord  of  glory  was  enough  to 
convince  him  of  sin.  He  remembered,  and  went  out 
and  wept  bitterly.  Once  before  a  flash  of  divinity  upon 
him  had  convinced  Peter  of  sin.  At  a  word  from 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  we  read  he  had  let  down  his  net  after 
a  night^s  fruitless  toil,  and,  to  his  amazement,  ^'they 
enclosed  a  great  multitude  of  fishes.'^  The  result 
impressed  Peter  with  an  overpowering  sense  of  some- 
thing unlike  all  other  men  in  the  Son  of  man  who  had 
just  been  teaching  the  multitudes  from  the  boat.  Peter 
believed  himself  to  be  in  the  presence  of  some  wonder- 
ful revelation  of  God.  And  as  soon  as  he  became 
aware  of  himself  as  a  man  in  the  visible  presence  of  a 
divine  power,  what  was  his  first  instinctive,  irrepressible 
thought?  When  he  saw  it,  he  fell  down  at  Jesus' 
knees,  saying,  "  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man, 
O  Lord.''  He  was  as  good  a  man  as  we  are.  He  was 
no  worse  than  his  partners  in  the  other  boat.  He  had 
104 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through  Christ.    105 

no  vices  that  we  know  of.  No  special  history  of  sin 
was  traced  upon  his  countenance.  We  know  that  he  was 
an  outspoken,  warm-hearted  man.  He  had  an  honest 
face.  Children  probably  would  not  have  been  afraid  of 
that  strong,  eager,  kindly  man  in  his  fisher's  clothes. 
Any  one  needing  help  might  have  singled  out  Peter  in 
that  crowd  of  Jews  as  the  one  to  whom  to  make  his 
appeal.  Jesus  knew  what  manly  stuff  was  in  Peter, 
when  he  called  him  to  be  one  of  his  apostles.  Indeed, 
as  Peter  was  more  of  a  man  than  most  of  his  fellow- 
townsmen,  so  he  would  have  passed  for  a  thoroughly 
respectable  and  good  man  and  citizen  in  any  community. 
Yet  when  he  saw  himself  in  a  flash  of  divinity  upon 
him,  he  could  only  say  :  "  I  am  a  sinful  man."  I  sup- 
pose that  at  the  time  when  he  denied  Jesus  he  had  really 
become  a  better  man  than  he  had  been  before  he  knew 
and  followed  Jesus.  He  must  have  become,  under 
Jesus'  influence,  a  larger,  manlier,  more  prophetic  soul 
than  he  had  been  before  as  a  fisherman  of  Galilee. 
Nevertheless,  he  did  an  unmanly  thing,  and  he  was 
about  to  persist  in  it,  when  the  divine  Man  looked  him 
full  in  the  face ; — and  in  that  look  he  saw  himself  again. 
He  remembered.  He  realized  under  the  eye  of  Jesus 
what  he  had  been  doing.  A  glance  of  God  into  his  soul 
revealed  his  loss  of  himself.  Beholding  his  Lord,  as 
he  stood  in  the  calm  triumph  of  his  divine  manhood 
looking  into  his  timid  soul,  he  could  not  help  knomng 
himself  in  his  weakness  and  shame.  Not  a  word  was 
spoken.  God  does  not  need  to  speak  to  judge  us.  He 
will  only  need  to  look  upon  us.  One  look  of  divinity 
is  enough  to  convince  of  sin.     Peter  the  denier,  under 


io6  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

the  eye  of  the  Sou  of  God,  became  at  once  Peter  the 
penitent,  k  nd  we  know  how  afterwards  Peter  the  peni- 
tent became  Peter  the  man — firm  as  the  rock — the  true 
Peter,  hero  of  faith,  and  made  worthy  at  last  of  meeting 
and  returning  with  joy  the  look  of  the  risen  and 
ascended  Lord  among  the  sons  of  God  on  high. 

These  effects  of  Jesus'  flashings  of  God  upon  Peter 
show  very  simply  and  plainly  Jesus'  method  of  convinc- 
ing men  of  sin,  and  of  lifting  them  up  through  repent- 
ance to  real  and  everlasting  manliness.  They  indicate, 
therefore,  a  kind  of  work  which  needs  very  much  to  be 
done  now  in  the  Church,  and  in  the  world,  in  the  name 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  We  need  all  of  us  to  see  our- 
selves in  God's  eye.  We  need  to  stand  revealed  to  our- 
selves before  the  living  God.  We  need  to  learn  what 
we  are,  and  ought  to  be,  in  some  flashings  of  divinity 
upon  our  souls.  And  we  need  to  take  ourselves  into  the 
divinest  presence  we  can  possibly  find  anywhere  upon 
this  earth,  and  to  study  and  really  know  ourselves  in 
that  presence,  because  there  is  so  much  that  is  fictitious, 
artificial,  and  unreal,  in  our  traditional  speech  about  sin 
and  conviction  of  sin. 

The  fact  of  life  here  in  point  is  that  when  a  preacher 
stands  before  a  modern  congregation  of  well-dressed  and 
well-to-do  people,  old  and  young,  and  tells  them  that 
they  are  sinners,  that  they  are  lost  sinners,  and  that  they 
ought  to  repent,  and  to  cry  out  what  must  we  do  to  be 
saved  ? — the  words  have  a  sound  so  familiar  and  so  far- 
away too  from  their  daily  thoughts  that  it  is  perfectly 
easy  for  the  majority  of  them  to  listen,  and  to  think  at 
the  same  time  of  something  else.     Nay,  it  is  easy  for 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through   Christ.    107 

the  preacher  himself  to  speak  such  words  in  the  same 
far-off  way,  in  the  same  unconsciousness  of  reality  in 
the  words  which  he  speaks  concerning  sin  and  the  judg- 
ment to  come.  We  can  even  set  heart-breaking  confes- 
sions of  sin  to  music,  and  sing  in  our  churches  to 
operatic  airs  words  which,  if  they  have  any  reality  about 
them,  would  pierce  the  air  rather  like  the  cry  of  a  lost 
soul.    Peter  did  not  go  a^^ay  from  the  Lord's  eye  singing ; 

Shall  the  vile  race  of  flesh  and  blood, 
Contend  with  their  Creator  God  ? 

He  went  out  in  silence  and  wept  bitterly.  When  a 
miracle  of  divinity  made  the  living  God  the  one  consum- 
ing Reality  of  things  to  him,  he  did  not  sing ; 

Lord,  I  am  vile,  conceived  in  sin. 
And  born  unholy  and  unclean ; 
Sprung  from  the  man  whose  guilty  fall 
Corrupts  the  race,  and  taints  us  all. 

He  fell  at  Jesus'  knees,  and  said,  "  Depart  from  me,  I 
am  a  sinful  man  ! ''  He  had  a  real,  personal  sense  of  his 
unworthiness,  and  in  straightforward  speech  he  owned 
himself  to  be  what  he  saw  that  he  was.  He  did  not 
substitute  his  parents,  or  mankind,  for  himself  in  his 
real  confession  before  Jesus  Christ. 

The  Biblical  expressions,  of  which  such  hymns  are 
theological  renderings,  were  originally  intensely  personal. 
Everything  about  the  Biblical  language  of  confession  is 
personal,  real,  actual.  Its  most  intense  expressions  of 
human  unworthiness  rose  from  the  memory  of  actual 
sins.  And  the  prophets  of  Jehovah  were  too  much  in 
earnest,  in  their  hard  grapple  with  the  real  and  crowding 


io8  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

iniquities  of  the  people,  to  go  off  into  generalities  of 
doctrine  about  original  sin.  It  is  indeed  much  more 
agreeable  to  us  to  indulge  in  sound  words  of  confession 
of  our  generic  human  sinfulness  than  it  is  to  acknowl- 
edge to  our  consciences  our  particular,  actual,  and  indi- 
vidual sins.  The  general  confessions  of  the  Church  may 
thus  become  easy  pillows  for  a  half-awakened  conscience, 
and  in  the  very  act  of  confessing  that  we  are  all  misera- 
ble sinners,  our  eyes  may  be  closed  upon  ourselves,  and 
our  souls  go  to  sleep.  Language  of  confession  which 
once  may  have  been  real,  and  throbbing  with  vital 
meanings,  becomes  our  tradition  of  religious  speech. 
Or  words  which  to  some  men,  in  some  moments  of  vivid 
conviction,  are  real  as  life,  and  in  their  violence  of  self- 
accusation  inadequate  to  their  sense  of  the  unutterable 
blackness  of  sin  when  seen  over  against  the  pure,  white 
light  of  the  holiness  of  God,  may  be  used  by  others  as 
the  proper  forms  in  which  their  religious  emotions 
should  be  moulded.  Piety  becomes  thus  partly  ficti- 
tious, a  form  borrowed  from  others'  lives — a  habit  of 
speech  deemed  proper.  This  is  hurtful  to  conscience. 
A  fictitious  theological  sense  of  sin  has  dulled  the  moral 
sense  in  many  instances.  Because  the  forms  of  religious 
experience  have  been  borrowed  from  the  Church,  and 
put  on  as  the  proper  garments  for  professors  of  religion, 
the  piety  of  even  Christian  men  has  sometimes  lacked 
truth  in  the  inward  parts,  and  they  have  been  oblivious 
of  some  very  unbecoming  sins  while  wearing  the  Chris- 
tian habit  of  general  confession  of  the  sinfulness  of 
their  lives.  Any  untruthfulness  in  our  religious  habits 
or  modes  of  speech  cannot  fail  of  bad  moral  reactions 


Knowledge  of  Self  Throitgh  Christ.    109 

upon  our  lives.  An  honest  ounce  of  real  conviction  of 
a  sin,  is  better  than  a  pound  of  general  acknowledgment 
of  our  human  sinfulness.  An  act  of  real  repentance 
before  God  and  man  for  actual  sin  is  more  like  the  true 
penitence  which  Jesus  enjoined  upon  his  friends  than  a 
willingness  to  allow  in  every  prayer  that  we  are  worth- 
less worms.  It  is  said  that  there  used  to  be  in  the  types 
of  religious  experience  a  deeper  sense  of  sin  than  is 
often  manifested  now-a-days.  But,  granting  for  the 
moment  the  fact,  and  not  stopping  to  note  other  limita- 
tions, or  reactions  upon  character,  of  that  earlier  type  of 
religious  experience  in  New  England,  this  one  present 
fact  is  clear ; — we  cannot  make  a  modern  congregation 
of  people  return  along  the  same  lines  of  religious  expe- 
rience through  which  our  fathers  came  up  out  of  the 
depths.  And  if  we  seek  to  restore  the  forms  and  the 
fashions  of  their  religious  life — forms  which  may  have 
been  most  natural  and  honest  to  them — but  which  are 
not  so  to  us,  we  shall  be  in  great  danger  of  falling  our- 
selves, and  of  leading  others  to  fall,  into  a  fictitious 
religious  experience,  and  a  hurtful  dishonesty  in  our 
secret  religious  life.  But  the  last  place  in  all  this 
w^orld  for  anything  artificial,  or  not  perfectly  true  to 
ourselves,  is  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  before  his 
cross.  For  our  Lord  came  to  reveal  God  to  men  just 
as  God  is  in  his  own  eternal  Christ-likeness ;  and  he 
came  also  to  show  human  hearts  to  themselves  just  as 
they  look  in  God's  pure  eye.  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was 
the  most  real  of  men.  The  fashion  of  no  age  was  upon 
his  manner  of  life,  and  no  guile  ever  lighted  upon  his 
lips.     He  did  not  live  in  a  fictitious  world  created  by 


no  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

his  own  thoughts,  and  peopled  with  his  own  imagina- 
tions. Jesus  lived  out  in  the  open,  and  in  full,  clear 
view  of  the  realities  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  The  Son 
of  man  is  the  one  absolutely  unartificial,  or  real,  man  of 
human  history.  Amid  these  passing  forms  of  things 
which  blind  our  eyes,  and  these  fashions  of  the  world 
which  delude  our  hearts,  he  walked  with  God,  knowing 
the  Father's  thoughts,  and,  even  while  his  feet  pressed 
our  earthly  trial- way  down  towards  death,  ever  conscious 
of  himself  as  being,  in  his  own  pure  peace,  ^Hhe  Son  of 
man  which  is  in  heaven.'^  Hence  everything  about  the 
words  of  Jesus  bears  the  impress  of  reality.  Hence  the 
New  Testament  is  always  the  most  real  of  books.  This 
Gospel  we  know  is  a  Gospel  of  real  life.  These  words 
of  the  Lord  are  realities  revealing  themselves  to  whom- 
soever will  look  and  see.  Jesus  reveals  everything 
around  him, — the  mysteries  of  God's  thoughts,  and  the 
hearts  of  men — all  as  they  are.  Jesus  is  himself  the 
mystery  of  the  ages  becoming  light,  and  shining  before 
our  eyes.  You  know  that  in  the  self-revelation  of  some 
word  of  Christ  you  have  understood  yourselves  better 
than  you  ever  did  before.  Or  if  you  have  not,  you 
may.  No  man  ever  felt  Jesus'  eye  upon  him,  and  w^ent 
away  without  a  look  into  his  OAvn  heart  which  he  had 
never  had  so  clearly  before.  Some  men  went  away  from 
Christ  to  the  judgment.  The  thoughts  of  many  hearts, 
as  Simeon  foresaw,  were  revealed  by  him.  Jesus'  Gosjxil, 
therefore,  being  thus  intensely  personal,  real,  and  reveal- 
ing, is  the  most  honest  thing  in  this  whole  world.  It  is 
no  form ;  no  ficjtion  of  life ;  no  exaggeration  of  feeling ; 
no  mere  speech  about  God  and  the  world  to  come ;  it  is 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through  Oudst,    1 1 1 

the  one  essentially  and  perfectly  honest  thing  in  this 
world  of  words  and  forms,  and  fictions  of  life.  When 
we  really  understand  Jesus'  word  with  regard  to  any 
question  of  life,  we  have  reached  down  to  the  truth,  the 
principle,  the  law,  the  divine  fact,  at  the  bottom  and 
heart  of  it.  But  if  our  faith  is  something  put  on  our 
lives ;  something  strained,  assumed,  not  quite  real  to  us, 
we  may  be  sure  we  know  the  mind  that  was  in  Jesas  too 
imperfectly,  and  not  as  we  should  seek  to  learn  Christ's 
real  answer  to  the  thoughts  of  our  hearts.  It  will  not 
do  for  us  to  be  content  in  religion  with  anything  which 
we  have  not  made  our  own.  The  language  of  faith  is 
^^I  believe ; "—not,  "My  father  believed;"  or,  "My 
neighbor  believes."  We  cannot  be  Christian  successes 
of  men  and  women  upon  borrowed  capital  of  faith. 

I  come  back  now  with  this  thought  of  the  perfect 
human  honesty  of  Jesus'  Gospel  for  life  to  the  subject 
which  is  the  burden  of  this  sermon,  viz ; — our  sense  of 
personal  sinfulness.  It  would  do  you  no  good  if  in 
preaching  as  I  would  to-day  upon  the  sinfulness  of  sin 
and  the  duty  of  immediate  repentance,  I  should  repeat 
to  you  extracts  from  the  sermons  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 
Those  words  were  real  to  him.  They  would  not  be  to 
you.  He  had  as  a  reality  in  his  life  a  daily  sense  of  the 
holiness  of  God  in  heaven.  There  shone  before  him  the 
divine  holiness  burning  with  light !  It  awed  him,  but  it 
attracted  him.  It  humbled  him  to  the  dust,  but  it  lifted 
him  up  also  to  heights  of  prophetic  vision  of  God's 
righteous  judgments.  And  these  experiences  he  uttered 
in  the  words  which  were  the  natural  language  of  relig- 
ious  experience   in   his   day.      They   were   impressive 


1 1 2  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

realities  of  speech,  therefore,  to  his  hearers.  But 
Edwards  would  reason  of  the  divinity  which  he  exj^eri- 
enced  in  different  forms  of  speech  now.  While,  how- 
ever, we  fail  to  make  the  habit  of  life  with  w^hich 
Providence  has  clothed  us  answer  to  his  forms,  or  to  the 
modes  of  any  other  age  than  just  our  own,  shall  we 
miss  the  truths  which  have  been  the  real  powers  of  the 
world  to  come  in  the  lives  of  all  the  saints  ?  We  must 
lose  the  substance  of  faith  unless  we  are  honest  enough 
and  brave  enough  to  go  straight  to  Jesus'  Gospel  for 
ourselves,  and  to  take  the  truths  of  the  Spirit  as  we  may 
find  words  to  receive  them  in  the  daily  language  of  our 
own  hearts. 

How,  then, — to  keep  the  main  question  foremost, — are 
you  men  and  women,  you  young  people,  born  as  you 
have  been  in  good  homes,  trained  from  childhood  in  the 
first  principles  of  Christian  conscience,  and  with  lives 
blossoming  with  fair  hopes,  or  bearing  good  deeds  known 
of  all  men, — how  are  such  as  you  to  be  convinced  of 
sin,  brought  in  penitence  to  the  cross,  and  led  to  ask  the 
old  question  of  lost  sinners, —  What  must  I  do  to  be 
saved?  This  most  pertinent  and  personal  question,  I 
would  try  to  answer,  as  I  believe  we  may  answer  in  the 
simplest  and  most  straightfor^vard  manner  all  religious 
questions  of  our  day,  by  consulting  not  with  flesh  nor 
blood,  not  even  with  the  prophets  or  the  apostles,  by 
stopping  not  until  we  stand  before  Jesus  himself  with 
nis  eye  upon  us.  We  are  to  see  ourselves  in  Jesus'  eye. 
We  are  to  know  ourselves  through  Christ.  AVe  are  to 
know  what  we  are,  what  we  ought  to  be,  what  we  should 
confess,  what  we  may  become,  as  we  fall  like  Peter  at 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through   Christ.    113 

Jesus'  knees,  and  remember  !  Let  his  divinity  once 
flash  upon  your  soul  as  it  did  upon  Peter's,  and  you 
would  need  no  sermon  to  convince  you  of  your  personal 
unworthiness  and  need.  Christ's  way  of  convincing 
the  world  of  sin  is  by  showing  it  God.  If  we  could 
see  him  in  his  divine  Manhood  and  ourselves  before 
him,  no  words  would  need  to  be  spoken.  Our  inmost 
instinct  would  come  out  in  the  words  of  real  confession, 
"  Depart  from  me  ;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord." 
But  the  distance  of  eighteen  centuries  lies  between  us  and 
the  supernal  flashings  of  that  eye  of  divinity.  And  we 
can  find  in  the  present  half-Christianized  world  many 
artificial  standards  of  character  beneath  which  to  shelter 
ourselves  and  our  desires  of  life.  We  are  as  good  as 
others.  We  have  been  guilty  of  none  but  little  sins. 
We  have  given  to  the  poor.  We  have  been  governed 
for  the  most  part  by  good  feelings.  So  had  Peter.  But 
what  made  him,  when  he  saw  God  revealing  his  presence 
in  a  miracle,  fall  to  the  ground  with  that  cry, — "  Depart 
from  me;  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O  Lord?''  We  say  it 
was  conscience.  That  moment  when  Jesus  looked  upon 
him,  conscience  awoke  under  the  eye  of  the  Lord.  But 
that  does  not  seem  to  be  all.  There  was  more  than  a  flash 
of  conscience  in  Peter's  sudden  recollection  of  himself. 
His  remembering,  his  repentance,  was  his  whole  soul 
realizing  its  darkness,  its  unworthiness,  its  littleness,  its 
own  measureless  need,  as  God  shone  through  it.  He 
went  out  self-revealed  before  God  manifest  in  the  flesh. 
My  friends,  I  might  set  conscience  up  in  this  pulpit 
for  you  to  look  at,  and  for  it  to  look  through  you  and 
me.     I  might  call  our  sin  to  judgment  in  the  name  of 

8 


1 1 4  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

conscience.  I  might  ^^roclaim  the  inexorableness  of  law 
and  the  natural  certainties  of  retribution.  I  might 
leave  all  gross  passions  and  all  great  sins  outside,  and 
take  the  simplest,  smallest  sin  which  we  all  must  confess, 
and  let  that  be  seen  in  the  beam  of  light  of  a  perfect 
conscience.  I  might  take  thus  the  single,  actual  sin,  of 
which  many  times  we  all  have  been  guilty,  the  petty  sin 
of  being  cross,  and  show  under  the  analysis  of  an  elec- 
tric light  of  white  conscience  what  a  venomous,  loath- 
some thing  that  small  sin  is  ; — how  it  is  a  worm  upon 
the  honor  of  manhood,  and  a  blight  upon  the  beauty  of 
womanhood ;  how  it  is  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  our 
neighbor, — our  nearest  neighbor  too  often  in  our  own 
homes ;  how,  if  that  sin  had  might  as  it  has  evil,  it 
would  make  life  a  discord,  and  ruin  a  world ;  how  it  is 
in  its  own  nature  a  mockery  of  God's  sunshine,  and  a 
blow  against  love  ;  how,  if  that  sin  of  a  cross  word,  or 
a  deed  thoughtlessly  hard — too  small  a  sin  we  think 
when  we  become  aware  of  it,  and  the  evil  mood  passes 
from  us,  to  be  confessed — be  held  under  the  illumination 
of  a  powerful  conscience,  it  is  seen  to  be  a  spirit  of  mis- 
chief which  would  sting  the  heart  of  goodness ;  a  sin  of 
ingratitude  and  meanness  which  beats,  though  in  impo- 
tent littleness,  against  eternal  law  and  harmony,  and 
pecks  in  petty  spite  at  the  hand  of  the  Mercy  which 
would  feed  us ;  a  small  sin,  which  when  we  realize  it  as 
it  is,  would  be  great  enough  to  cause  an  angel  who  could 
commit  it  to  fly  from  heaven's  gate ;  a  sin  gross  and 
wretched  enough,  could  we  feel  its  despicableness,  to 
make  the  proudest  man  or  woman  of  us  turn  red  at 
heart  for  very  shame,  and  to  convince  us  that  we  are  far 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through  Christ.    1 1 5 

from  perfect, — not  whole,  but  still  broken  and  wrangling 
souls.  Yet  even  this  illumination  of  conscience  is  not 
the  full  condemnation  of  a  sin.  Carry  that  sin  of  yours 
back  until  you  see  Jesus  looking  upon  it.  See  it — what 
it  is — in  his  flashing  of  God  upon  it.  Lay  that  sin  of 
yours  upon  the  brightness  of  God.  Conceive,  if  you 
can,  of  that  common  sin  of  yours  and  mine  as  ever  once 
committed  by  Jesus  Christ !  It  would  blot  out  the 
glory  of  his  life  from  these  Gospels.  It  would  take 
away  our  Lord.  See  that  sin  against  God's  splendor ! 
Imagine,  if  you  can,  God  committing  that  little  sin  ! 
The  throne  of  light  would  be  darkened  forever,  should 
what  you  esteem  that  little  passing  shadow  upon  a 
human  life  fall  one  moment  upon  God's  glory !  The 
least  thought  of  sin  carried  up  to  Christ,  to  God,  and 
conceived  of  as  his,  becomes  unendurable.  AVhy? 
Because  it  is  sin.  Because  it  is  exceeding  sinful.  But 
that  is  where  every  sin  great  or  small  shall  be  carried 
for  its  last  judgment.  Up  to  the  great  white  throne ! 
We  mast  all  stand  before  the  judgment^seat  of  Christ. 

Beloved,  if  our  heart  condemn  as,  God  is  greater 
than  our  heart,  and  knoweth  all  things.  That  means, 
among  other  meanings,  that  if  conscience  is  enough  to 
convict  us  of  sins,  God  is  greater  than  conscience,  and, 
as  we  shall  know  ourselves  under  liis  eye,  we  shall  have 
something  of  Peter's  conviction  of  his  own  unworthiness 
when  the  Lord  looked  upon  him,  and  he  remembered, 
and  went  out  and  wept  bitterly. 

Let  me  specify  two  or  three  particulars  which  are 
brought  out  in  Jesas'  revelation  of  men  to  themselves. 

He  made  men,  whom  his  divinity  searched,  under- 


1 1 6  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

stand  that  they  were  personally  responsible  for  their  own 
real  characters.  He  did  not  allow  his  disciples  to  con- 
demn men  for  their  misery,  or  their  misfortunes,  or  the 
consequences  of  their  circumstances,  or  any  of  those 
influences  which  meet  from  beyond  their  own  wills  in 
men's  lives.  But  he  made  every  soul  of  man  realize 
that  within  life's  circumstances  there  is  a  living  centre 
of  personal  responsibility.  He  did  not  reason  about  it. 
He  did  not  need  to  argue  it,  for  he  himself  was  the 
demonstration  of  it,  he  was  himself  the  living,  shining 
evidence  of  man's  personal  responsibility  and  duty 
before  God.  Peter  never  once  thought  of  the  divine 
predestination  determining  his  act  of  unmanliness  when 
Jesus'  eye  rested  upon  him.  He  knew  he  himself  had 
done  what  he  ought  not  to  have  done,  what  with 
Jesus'  glance  piercing  his  soul  he  despised  himself  for 
having  done.  Jesus  made  men  understand,  also,  that  in 
their  sinning  they  have  to  do  with  personal  beings.  We 
do  not  sin  against  abstractions  ;  or  against  a  system  of 
commandments  only ; — we  are  persons  in  a  society  of 
persons  of  which  God  is  the  centre  and  the  source.  All 
sin  is  against  the  realities  of  a  most  personal  universe. 
Sin  strikes  against  beings.  Peter  sinned  against  the 
Lord  who  had  chosen  him,  and  who  was  about  to  die 
for  him.  The  sinfulness  of  sin  is  not  that  it  is  simply 
a  transgression  of  a  law ;  but  it  beats  against  love ; — 
all  sin  is  against  love,  against  all  love;  for  it  is  sin 
against  the  living,  personal  being  of  God. 

Again,  as  Jesus  Christ  showed  men  themselves  in 
their  sins,  he  showed  them  also  that  those  sins  of  theirs 
are  something  which  God  cannot  endure  forever.     They 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through  Christ.    117 

must  not  be.  They  shall  not  be.  God  cannot  always 
endure  them,  and  be  the  God  he  is.  Jesus  said  he  did 
not  come  to  judge  the  world ;  and  yet  again  he  said ; 
"  Now  is  the  judgment  of  tliis  world."  His  presence 
before  men  did  judge  their  sins.  It  could  not  help  it, 
any  more  than  the  sun  can  help  revealing  the  earth 
while  it  shines  to  bless  it.  Jesus'  life  among  men 
showed  how  unlike  everything  which  God  can  love,  and 
wish  to  have  last  with  him  in  eternity,  a  human  sin  is. 
Even  now  wdien  we  think  of  some  of  the  cruelties 
of  this  world,  we  ask.  How  can  God  endure  them  ?  It 
seems  as  if  he  must  come  himself  and  put  a  stop  to 
these  things.  We  think  thus,  we  ask  sometimes  this 
question  of  doubting  faith,  because  we  are  Christians, 
beginning  to  see  in  our  Christian  light  how  contrary  to 
all  heaven  the  wrongs  of  men  and  women  and  little 
children  are.  God  in  heaven,  then,  cannot  and  will  not 
stand  the  sin  of  the  world  forever.  Jesus  the  Christ,  in 
bringing  God's  character  directly  to  bear  upon  this 
world  in  his  own  sinless,  saving  life,  knew  that  he  was 
also  of  necessity  judging  the  world,  and  in  his  death 
condemning  its  sin  with  an  infinite  condemnation.  Our 
sins,  then,  the  actual  every-day  sins  of  our  lives,  are 
condemnable.  They  are  by  Christ's  life  condemned 
already.  God  on  high  cannot  suffer  us  to  go  on  in  this 
way  forever.  He  must  redeem  us  and  make  us  like 
himself,  or  he  must  do  something  else  worthy  of  himself 
with  us.  This  is  morally  certain.  If  there  be  a  holy 
God — and  Jesus  Christ,  standing  supreme  in  the  midst 
of  our  turbid  history  of  sin,  is  the  visible  evidence  that 
there  is  a  holy  God, —  then  it  is  morally  certain  that 


1 1 8  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

this  long:  human  contradiction  of  God — the  sin  of  the 
world — must  somewhere  be  brought  to  a  stop.  It  may 
be  to  a  sudden  stop.  It  cannot  run  on  and  on  forever. 
God  is  God. 

And  one  thing  more  is  clear  as  a  star  in  the  mystery 
of  Godliness.  There  is  one  thing  more  which  we  need 
to  know  which  Jesus  makes  bright  as  day  in  his  Gospel 
of  God  to  man.  When  Peter  was  at  Jesus'  knees  say- 
ing in  the  first  honest  instinct  of  a  man  who  saw  him- 
self, "I  am  a  sinful  man;" — Jesus  stood  over  him 
radiant  like  a  God,  and  said,  "  Fear  not."  Such  is 
God's  lovely  attitude  towards  every  penitent  at  the  feet 
of  his  Almightiness  !  Fear  not !  Sin  is  forgiven  and 
all  its  darkness  made  bright  in  the  love  which  reveals  it. 
The  cloud  of  our  sky  becomes  a  glory  at  the  touch  of 
the  sun.  If  we  will  not  come  to  the  light  to  be  made 
known  and  to  be  forgiven,  then  we  remain  in  the  dark- 
ness. Penitence  is  holding  ourselves  up  in  God's  pure 
and  infinite  light,  and  letting  him  shine  our  darkness 
away.  Fear  not;  sin  is  vouchsafed  forgiveness  in  the 
same  love  which  shows  it  to  be  sin,  and  condemns  it. 
That  divine  look  which  made  Peter  remember  what  a 
wreck  of  all  his  manhood  he  was  making,  was  also  a 
look  of  forgiveness  from  the  heart  of  the  Saviour  who 
saw  the  splendid  possibilities  of  a  man  in  the  crushed 
disciple,  and  who  was  about  to  die  that  he  might  open 
for  him  and  all  men  the  gate  to  glory. 

So  may  it  be  with  us.  Sincere  conviction  of  sin  is 
the  beginning  of  the  birth  of  manhood  worthy  in 
Christ's  name  to  be  crowned  !  Out  of  penitence  ih'^ 
life  blossoms  into  the  light.     God  is  love.     The  lost  are 


Knowledge  of  Self  Through   Christ.    1 1 9 

found.  We  are  called  by  the  divine  glory  and  virtue. 
And  still  to  our  city  Immanuel  comes,  and  in  our  homes, 
in  the  language  of  our  OAvn  sins  and  needs  and  hopes  of 
life,  Jesus  preaches  the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  of  God, 
saying :  "  The  time  is  fulfilled  ;  and  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  at  hand  :  Repent  ye,  and  believe  the  Gospel." 


IX. 

GOD'S  FORGETFULNESS  OF  SIK 

*'  4For  31  hill  ioi%iht  tf)ttr  iniqutlg,  anir  J  toill  xtmtmitx  lf)^ir  Bin  no 
moK." — ^Jeremiah  xxxi.  34. 

We  believe  that  we  are  living  souls,  and  that  death  and 
destruction  cannot  put  us  out  of  existence.  We  are  also 
embodied  souls ;  and  if  even  the  gross  matter  of  this 
present  world  can  furnish  a  brain  fitted  to  be  the  organ 
of  mind,  much  more  shall  the  ethereal  matter  of  the 
world  to  come  furnish  the  finer  material  for  our  freer  life 
in  a  spiritual  body. 

But  this  belief  in  ourselves  as  embodied  souls  bom 
and  destined  for  immortality,  carries  with  it  consequences 
which  startle  us  when  we  think  of  them.  One  momen- 
tous truth  involved  in  the  nature  of  our  present  life,  and 
belonging  to  the  substance  of  the  hope  of  its  continuance 
in  the  resurrection,  is  the  fact  of  memory.  One  of  the 
appalling  obstacles  between  sinful  men  now,  and  their 
eternal  blessedness  hereafter,  is  the  indestructible  fact  of 
the  memory  of  sin.  If  memory  were  not  a  book  of 
nature  itself;  if  memory  were  merely  reminiscence, 
dependent  upon  our  wills,  so  that  we  could  remember  or 
forget  as  we  please ;  then  every  one  after  death  might 
leave  his  sin  buried  in  oblivion  at  death,  and  begin  life 
over  again  in  a  better  world,  if  he  would,  like  an  inno- 
cent child,  new-born  in  heaven.  But  is  memory  an  act 
120 


God's  For getf Illness  of  Sin.  121 

of  will,  or  is  it  an  organic  fact,  a  part  and  state  of  the 
substance  and  the  life  both  of  body  and  soul  ?  And  if 
the  latter  be  the  fact,  how  are  we  ever  to  forget  the  evil 
of  this  world  Avhich  has  entered  into  our  being,  and 
become  pai't  of  our  life  ? 

The  poet  Dante,  as  he  wandered  through  the  forest  of 
the  terrestrial  paradise,  came  to  a  stream  which  on  the 
one  side  was  called  Lethe,  and  on  the  other  Eunoe,  for 
it  possessed  the  double  virtue  to  take  away  remembrance 
of  offense,  and  to  bring  remembrance  back  of  every  good 
deed  done.  Immersed  in  Lethe's  wave  he  forgets  his 
fault,  and  from  Eunoe's  stream  he  returned, 

"  Eegenerate, 
E'en  as  new  plants  renew'd  with  foliage  new, 
Pure  and  made  apt  for  mounting  to  the  stars." 

What  would  not  many  a  burdened  soul  give  if  it  could 
find  that  water  of  deep  oblivion,  and  come  forth  regen- 
erate from  that  stream  of  blessed  memories?  Many 
guilty  souls  there  are  who  would  gladly  turn  toward  a 
better  life,  and  follow  virtue  like  a  star,  if  they  could 
break  loose  form  the  heavy  memory  of  their  past  which 
holds  them  back  and  keeps  them  dow^n.  But  they  can 
not  destroy  that  past  from  the  minds  of  others,  or  from 
their  own  memory.  They  would  be  different  men,  and 
might  have  a  future,  if  their  past  were  not  an  indestruct- 
ible part  of  their  present  existence.  The  future  is" 
mortgaged  to  the  past. 

Where  flows,  then,  the  stream  of  happy  forgetfulness  ? 
A  poet's  dream  may  not  beguile  us  ; — what  are  the  facts, 
the  stern,  unchangeable  facts  of  memory  ?     Is  memory 


122  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

an  unalterable  record  of  life  ?  And  if  it  is  life  of  our 
life,  and  part  and  substance  of  our  growth,  what  way 
of  escaping  from  this  earth's  tragic  history  of  sin  and 
death. can  we  ever  hope  for?  Shall  the  shadow  of  tliis 
earth  always  lie  before  us  upon  our  path  ? 

The  facts  of  memory  are  these.  The  mind  of  man  is 
a  chamber  of  memories — a  hall  of  echoes — a  gallery  of 
endless  whispers — a  house  haunted  by  shades  of  the  past. 
The  mind  is  one  labyrinth  of  memories — like  a  catacomb 
of  the  dead.  Everything  we  have  thought  or  done  has 
its  resting  place  in  it ;  passage  leads  into  passage,  cell 
opens  after  cell;  there  is  an  endless  succession  of 
chambers  in  memory ;  some  are  narrow  and  dark,  and 
rarely  visited ;  some  spacious  and  more  frequented ;  and 
we  search  through  our  memories,  following  a  slight 
thread  of  association  as  a  clue,  or  turning  hither  and 
thither  our  attention,  as  one  does  a  flickering  torch  in 
passing  through  a  subterranean  catacomb  of  Rome. 
Recollection  is^s  the  torch  in  the  traveller's  hand  through 
this  endless  labyrinth  of  memory ;  but  memory  itself  is 
the  receptacle  of  all  our  past.  There  is  a  place  in  it  for 
all  the  deeds  done  in  the  body.  Or  if  it  be  urged  that 
its  capacity  is  limited,  and  that  the  long  buried  in 
memory  must  be  cast  out  for  that  which  has  just  passed 
into  its  quiet  chambers,  still  the  habits  of  our  past  have 
made  and  form  these  very  chambers  of  memory ;  and 
though  many  deeds  seem  to  have  been  lost,  and  name  be 
engraven  over  name  in  memory,  still  the  record  of  the 
years  remains  in  the  structure  itself  of  the  soul.  All 
that  the  mind  has  been  used  for  remains  a  memory 
wrought  into  its  own  structure  and  form. 


God's  Forgetftdness  of  Sin.  123 

It  is  a  fact,  then,  which  the  organization  of  the  body 
and  the  laws  of  the  mind  alike  attest,  that  we  are  not  the 
makers  or  the  masters  of  our  own  memories.  Only 
within  narrow  limits  can  we  recollect  or  forget  at  our 
pleasure.  Memory  is  a  physical  and  mental  fact  to  a 
large  degree  independent  of  will.  I  spoke  of  memory  as 
an  organic  fact.  I  mean  that  it  is  a  fact  of  the  organism 
of  the  body,  as  well  as  an  essential  element  of  the  mind. 
The  body  has  a  memory  of  its  own  which  a  man  can  no 
more  alter  or  efface  than  he  can  add  one  cubit  to  his 
stature,  or  change  the  features  of  his  countenance.  This 
body,  although  it  be  but  a  passing  form,  a  mere  flow  of 
atoms,  nothing  but  matter  in  pei-petual  flux,  neverthe- 
less has  a  life-long  memory  of  its  own.  It  keeps  every 
scar.  It  retains  in  our  features  ancestral  lineaments.  It 
brings  our  fathers  back  to  life  in  its  involuntary  motions 
and  gestures;  nay,  it  brings  back  the  ages  before  our 
fathers  were  born,  and  in  its  structure  and  growth  pre- 
serves and  reproduces  the  whole  process  of  creation  from 
the  lower  forms  of  life  up  to  man ;  and  it  has  also  its 
daily  memory  of  our  own  acts  and  training.  The  eye 
has  its  memory ;  the  tone  of  the  voice,  the  ear,  the  very 
finger-tips  on  the  keys  have  their  memories ;  the  nerves 
have  their  memories  beneath  our  consciousness,  often 
beyond  our  wills ;  every  organic  cell  in  this  body  is  a 
chamber  written  over  with  memories ;  and  the  brain  is  a 
great  echoing-hall  of  memory ;  the  two  hemispheres  of 
the  brain  are  rightly  called  the  sounding-boards  of  all 
that  transpires  within  the  body.  Sensation,  thought, 
volition  have  each  their  corresponding  echo  and  memory 
in  the  brain. 


124  ^^^  Reality  of  Faith, 

Memory,  then,  is  organic.  It  is  a  bodily  fact.  It  is  a 
part  of  our  embodiment.  No  ingenuity  of  human  art 
has  ever  invented  to  watch  the  watchman  a  self-register- 
ing machine  so  accurate,  so  constant,  so  unalterably  true, 
as  is  the  human  brain — God's  register  of  the  deeds  done 
in  the  body.  Carry  now  this  truth  one  step  further. 
If  in  the  present  physical  basis  of  life  there  is  provision 
made  for  memory ;  if  matter  so  gross  as  the  brain  can 
become  the  register  of  the  mind ;  much  more  may 
memory  be  continuous  and  comprehensive  in  the  spiritual 
embodiment  of  the  soul ;  much  more  shall  it  be  made 
perfect  in  the  resurrection.  If  we  believe  that  this  life 
is  only  the  beginning  of  us,  then  every  consideration 
which  proves  that  memory  is  a  present  organic  fact  of 
our  existence,  goes  to  show  further  that  it  will  be  a  con- 
tinued process  hereafter ;  that  it  shall  be  then  even  more 
pictorial  and  comprehensive  of  our  life.  It  is  not  difficult 
to  imagine  how  every  line  and  impression  of  the  present 
life  shall  be  etched  upon  the  substance  of  the  soul  which 
goes  hence,  or  how  the  spiritual  body,  fair  or  demoniacal, 
shall  be  set  free  from  the  present  mortality  as  an  embodied 
memory  of  our  earthly  lives.  The  types  of  the  printer's 
case  may  be  distributed,  ready  to  be  taken  up  again  in  a 
new  form ;  but  if  the  copy  has  once  been  struck  off,  the 
writing  remains  though  the  types  be  distributed.  So 
these  atoms  of  matter  in  their  present  arrangement  in  our 
brains  are  not  ours  forever.  They  co-exist  in  us  only  for 
our  momentary  use.  The  form  shall  be  broken  up,  and 
they  shall  be  distributed,  dust  to  dust,  and  earth  to  earth  ; 
but  the  soul  shall  have  taken,  before  this  bodily  form  is 
broken  up,  the  copy  of  this  mortal  life  and  its  deeds,  and 


God's  Forgetfulness  of  Sm.  125 

hence  shall  continue  with  the  impression  of  it  stamped 
upon  it  forever.  The  soul  is  now  taking  the  form  and 
shape  of  the  thought  and  acts  of  the  life  in  the  body. 
The  soul  going  from  the  body  into  the  unseen  is  not  the 
same  soul  that  came  to  itself  in  this  body.  It  is  the  soul 
with  the  impression  of  life  left  upon  it.  It  is  the  soul 
formed  and  moulded  for  the  future  state  according  to  the 
deeds  done  in  the  body.  It  shall  enter  the  resurrection- 
body  not  as  it  entered  this  body  of  flesh.  The  materials 
of  that  spiritual  form  of  existence  shall  be  associated  by 
its  associations,  and  adapted  to  its  adaptations,  and  more 
even  than  in  this  grosser  element  of  existence  and  in  this 
imperfect  body  shall  the  soul  appear  in  its  form  and 
motion  to  be  what  it  is  in  its  spirit  and  purpose ;  the 
inner  thought  shall  create  more  unmistakably  the  out- 
ward semblance,  and  memory  shall  be  the  visible 
embodiment  of  all  that  the  life  has  been  for  good  or  evil. 
I  am  reasoning  in  such  statements  from  the  less  to  the 
greater ;  from  the  capacity  of  the  grosser  element  to  the 
capacity  of  the  more  ethereal ;  and  I  say,  therefore,  if  we 
believe  that  we  have  souls  now  growing  in  these  bodies 
for  immortality,  if  we  believe  that  we  are  destined  to 
awake  after  death  in  some  organic  form  or  spiritual 
embodiment,  then  we  must  also  believe  that  we  cannot 
escape  from  our  past,  and  that  we  cannot  find  flowing 
through  death's  dark  valley  any  stream  of  forgetfulness ; 
for  memory  is  a  part  and  element  of  all  organized  life 
here  and  hereafter,  and  we  carry  in  ourselves  a  book  of 
remembrance  which  no  change  of  outward  circumstance 
can  efface  or  destroy,  a  book  written  in  the  lines  of  our 
own  being  and  preserved  in  the  form  and  substance  of 


126  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

our  souls.  Memory  can  never  commit  suicide,  and  cease 
to  be. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Not  only  do  we  have  in  our  own 
organization  a  memory  of  ourselves  which  we  cannot 
tear  from  us,  but  also  the  universe  has  a  memory  of  us. 
The  memory  of  men's  lives  is  a  part  of  the  universe. 
The  record  of  our  life  is  a  line  written  in  the  book  of 
things.  It  belongs  to  nature.  We  cannot  blot  it  out. 
And  if  we  carry  this  truth  of  memory  still  further  and 
higher,  we  rise  to  the  conception  of  the  unalterable  mem- 
ory of  the  Eternal.  Can  God  forget?  Can  God  put 
our  sin  out  of  his  eternal  remembrance  ?  Can  God  ever 
make  our  sin  to  his  own  thought  as  though  it  were  not, 
as  though  it  had  never  been?  We  might  indeed  say 
that  God  possesses  in  an  unlimited  degree  a  power  which 
we  possess  in  a  limited  degree ;  and  that  as  we  put  things 
for  hours  and  days  out  of  mind,  as  we  can  hold  under 
the  illumination  of  attention  now  this,  now  that  recollec- 
tion, and  let  everything  else  meanwhile  be  buried  in  for- 
getfulness ;  so  might  God,  if  he  would,  put  our  sin  out 
of  his  memory  forever.  And  we  may  say,  moreover, 
that  should  God  be  pleased  to  remember  no  more  our 
iniquities  against  us,  then  by  his  unlimited  power  over 
memory  as  an  infinite  Will,  our  sins  might  never  be  per- 
mitted to  return,  or  to  cast  their  shadows  of  fear  again 
between  God's  love  and  the  sinner  he  would  forgive. 
Cannot  God  put  what  he  pleases  out  of  mind,  and  by  his 
infinite  power  of  will  keep  it  out  of  his  thought  forever  ? 
Cannot  God  will  not  to  remember  our  sin  ? 

We  must  look  here  also  calmly  at  the  facts.  This  is 
not  simply  a  question  of  power  over  will.     It  is  not 


God's  Forgetfubiess  of  Sin.  127 

simply  a  question  as  to  what  an  Almighty  God  can  do ; 
but  what  God  as  an  infinitely  perfect  moral  Being  will 
do.  In  the  unlimited  power  of  the  divine  will  over  the 
divine  memory  or  thought,  we  might  find  the  Lethe  of 
the  sin  of  the  world,  and  the  divine  oblivion  of  our 
transgressions  for  which  we  pray,  if  we  could  imagine 
how  God  could  forget  sin,  and  not,  at  the  same  time, 
forget  his  own  holiness,  forget  his  own  righteousness, 
forget  some  essential  attribute  of  his  own  divinity.  But 
God  will  not  will  to  forget  himself.  He  cannot  deny 
himself. 

Consider  well  the  great  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the 
eternal  forgetfulness  of  the  sin  of  this  world.  First,  sin, 
as  has  been  observed,  is  an  organic  part  of  ourselves.  It 
has  entered  into  the  life  of  the  soul.  Our  nature  carries 
its  scar.  \ye  stand  as  sinners  before  God.  Secondly, 
our  sin  is  a  part  of  the  memory  of  the  universe.  Our 
evil  nature  has  shown  itself  to  others,  and  is  remem- 
bered. The  universe  holds  it  in  remembrance.  The 
earth  has  felt  our  impatient  step.  The  air  has  vibrated 
to  our  passionate  cry.  The  sun  has  seen  the  flash  of 
anger  in  our  eye.  Every  element  has  received  the 
impression  of  the  deeds  which  we  have  done  in  the  body. 
And  other  souls  carry  us  in  their  lives  on  with  them  to 
the  judgment.  Thirdly,  our  lives  are  written  also  in 
the  thoughts  of  the  Eternal  God.  He  cannot  forget  us 
though  we  may  forget  him.  He  holds  us  in  perpetual 
remembrance. 

How,  then,  can  sin  ever  be  forgiven  and  forgotten? 
For  surely  it  is  not  enough  simply  that  it  be  forgiven, 
and   not  forgotten.     It  is  not   enough  for  the  happy 


128  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

restoration  of  a  broken  human  friendship  that  the  wrong 
Avhich  broke  it  should  simply  be  forgiven ;  it  must  also 
be  forgotten,  or  there  can  be  no  glad  reconciliation,  and 
no  new,  real,  and  abiding  friendship.  Two  friends  who 
have  been  alienated  cannot  walk  together  again,  if  the 
wronged  person  is  simply  willing  to  forgive;  if  the 
wrong  which  separated  them  is  to  remain  ever  present 
in  the  memory  of  either  of  them ;  if  one  sees  it  in  the 
other's  eye;  if,  though  not  a  word  be  said  about  it, 
either  must  be  inwardly  conscious  of  it  whenever  he  is 
in  the  other's  presence.  If  the  wrong  done  cannot  be 
forgotten  as  well  as  forgiven,  it  would  remain  as  a  great 
gulf  fixed  between  those  who  once  Avere  friends,  although 
they  should  eat  again  at  the  same  table,  walk  the  same 
path  together,  and  lie  down  at  last  in  the  same  grave. 
It  would  be  idle  for  us  then  to  dream  of  heaven  after 
the  sinful  life  of  earth,  if  these  memories  of  sin  are  only 
to  become  quickened  and  intensified  in  that  sinless  world 
hereafter.  Death  cannot  be  the  rest  for  which  we  long, 
if  it  shall  only  lay  bare  the  nerve  of  a  sensitive  memory. 
Of  what  avail  the  companionship  of  angels,  if  between 
them  and  us  there  shall  lie  the  ever  present  distant^  of 
the  thought  of  our  earthly  sin  and  shame  ?  if  we  cannot 
banish  beyond  all  recognition  the  evil  which  has  found 
lodging  in  our  bosoms  ?  if  the  memory  of  it  shall  always 
be  in  our  thoughts  or  theirs  ?  if  the  whispers  of  our  own 
hearts  condemning  us  shall  be  the  judgment  of  a  moral 
universe  reverberating  around  us  ?  if  these  lieavens  whicli 
have  looked  down  upon  the  long  history  of  human 
passion,  and  this  earth  which  has  been  the  sepulchre  of 
human  crimes,  shall  not  pass  away  into  a  new  heavens 


God's  Forgetfidness  of  Sin,  129 

and  a  new  earth  wherein  dwelleth  righteousness  ?  How 
shall  we  stand  before  God,  and  be  perfectly  at  our  ease 
under  his  pure  eye,  happy  in  unconscious  sinlessness  in 
the  light  of  his  holy  blessedness,  if  our  sin  is  to  be  with 
us  also  there  in  his  presence,  in  our  memory  and  in  his 
thought  of  us  ? 

There  are  those  who  tell  us  that  God  out  of  his  mere 
benevolence  can  forgive  sin,  and  open  the  heaven  of  his 
holy  presence  to  the  sinner  who  would  return.  Yes,  so 
might  a  kind  human  friend  say  to  one  v.ho  had  done  him 
wrong, — "I  do  not  care ;  you  may  come  back  at  any 
time  and  sit  at  my  table  if  you  please ;  I  will  not  speak 
of  tlie  offense ;  I  am  willing  to  let  it  pass ; "  but  still, 
although  unmentioned,  the  wrong  also  would  be  there, 
sitting  at  the  same  table  with  the  two  who  sit  down 
together  again.  The  wrong  once  done  shall  be  always 
as  a  shadow  between  them,  until  something  be  done  to 
put  it  away ;  until  something  be  done  to  enable  both  to 
forget  it,  something  that  shall  cost  some  sacrifice,  some 
suffering,  some  reparation  for  the  wrong,  some  humilia- 
tion, and  some  manifestation  of  the  evil  really  inflicted 
and  the  pain  really  felt  on  account  of  the  sin  which  is  to  be 
forgiven.  Something  must  be  said  and  done  once  for  all 
of  the  nature  of  an  atonement  for  the  sin  which  separates 
those  two,  in  order  that  each  may  experience  the  joy  of  a 
restored  friendship,  and  that  full  reconciliation  in  which 
the  wrong  done  is  to  be  henceforth  morally  forgotten  as 
well  as  forgiven.  Surely,  then,  it  is  not  good  theology 
to  imagine  God  to  be  reconciled  to  this  world  at  a  less 
effort  and  at  a  less  cost  of  sacrifice  and  suffering  than  is 
required  for  the  perfect  binding  up  of  a  broken  human 

9 


i^o  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

friendship.  Reconciliation  does  cost  humiliation,  suffer- 
ing, self-vindication,  at  least  through  sorrow  and  pain 
for  the  sin  committed,  on  the  part  of  the  person  who 
would  forgive,  and  then  the  recognition  also  of  this  effort 
and  cost  of  forgiveness  on  the  part  of  him  who  is  to  be 
forgiven.  Otherwise  the  forgiveness  does  not  reach  to 
the  bottom  of  the  wrong,  and  the  healing  is  only  on  the 
surface  of  life.  There  is  no  real  reconciliation  between 
men  until  by  some  work  of  grace,  by  some  gracious 
condemnation  once  for  all  of  the  wrong  which  was  done, 
by  some  humiliation  of,  suffering  for  it  on  the  one  side, 
and  answering  penitence  on  the  other,  by  some  agreement 
or  new  covenant  of  good-will  into  which  both  can  enter, 
it  is  accomplished  and  henceforth  clearly  understood 
that  the  offense  is  to  be  both  forgiven  and  forgotten. 

And  shall  the  infinitely  perfect  One  be  less  human  in 
his  forgiveness  than  we  ?  How  can  the  Holy  One  for- 
give and  forget  our  sin  ?  Heaven's  answer  is  the  Cross 
of  Christ !  Through  his  work  of  atonement  for  sin  is 
opened  the  divine  way  of  forgetfulness  of  the  sin  of  the 
world.  God  would  always  from  eternity  forgive  sin  ;  he 
is  pleased  in  his  pure  grace  to  forgive  sin ;  but  that  he 
may  forgive  sin,  and  forget  it,  that  he  may  remember  it 
no  more  against  us  forever,  he  puts  in  the  place  of  that 
dark  nicmory  of  what  man  has  done  the  bright  memory 
of  what  Christ  has  done  for  us.  That  gracious  and 
grateful  memory  ever  present  in  God's  thought  of  this 
world  of  Christ's  perfect  obedience  unto  death ;  of  his 
one  finished  act  of  condemnation  of  all  sin  ;  of  his  full 
and  perfect  victory  over  all  the  power  and  death  of  sin  ; 
oh  !    that  is  the  complete  atonement  for  our  faith  to 


God's  Forgetfidness  of  Sin,  131 

accept,  the  full  reconciliation,  the  new  bond  and  testament, 
the  restored  and  final  friendship  between  God  and  man. 
God  remembers  man  henceforth  as  he  stands  before  him 
in  the  nature  and  grace  of  Christ.  Hence  he  can  forget 
man  as  he  was  without  Christ.  Justification  is  God's 
covering  the  knowledge  of  what  we  once  were  in  our 
sins  by  the  blessed  and  all-transfiguring  thought  of  what 
his  own  love  in  the  suffering  Kedeemer  has  done  and 
always  is  for  us.  And  this  is  no  mere  act  of  power  or 
violence  over  memory.  It  is  no  arbitrary  act  of  forget- 
fuluess.  It  contradicts  no  ethical  principle  of  memory, 
human  or  divine.  It  is  a  moral  hiding  from  the  divine 
remembrance  of  the  sin  of  the  world,  which  has  been 
already  and  once  for  all  condemned  in  the  same  suffering 
for  it  by  which  the  divine  willingness  to  forgive  was 
made  manifest.  To  say  that  God  can  forgive,  and  there- 
fore he  will,  without  any  atonement,  without  any  realiza- 
tion of  his  own  righteousness  in  his  act  of  grace,  would 
be  to  say  that  God  can  forget  law,  and  right,  and  his 
pure  self-respect ;  that  God  can  veil  his  full  moral  glory 
behind  the  single  attribute  of  his  mercy.  Not  so  do  the 
Scriptures  reveal  God  to  us.  He  cannot  deny  himself. 
He  cannot  sacrifice  one  divine  virtue  or  grace  to  another. 
In  all  things  he  is  wholly  God.  The  whole  moral  per- 
fection of  deity  must  be  satisfied  in  every  act  and  thought 
of  God.  God  cannot,  then,  by  a  mere  act  of  kindly 
suppression  of  his  own  knowledge  forget  that  hardened 
Pharaoh  would  not  let  his  people  go,  or  that  Judas 
betrayed  his  Anointed  ^dth  a  kiss.  He  cannot  by  an 
act  of  almighty  rest  mint  laid  upon  his  own  omniscience 
forget  the  death  of  the  martyrs  ^^•hose  blood  cries  to 


The  Reality  of  Faith. 


heaven,  or  the  wrong  of  a  single  woman's  life  suft'ering 
under  the  cruelty  of  man's  passions,  or  the  offense  done 
the  least  of  his  little  children  by  a  selfish  world.  Surely 
not  by  stroke  of  omnipotence  can  this  world's  history  of 
sin  and  woes  be  annihilated  from  the  mind  of  the  Eternal. 
God  has  not  sought  thus  to  put  our  sin  far  from  him. 
His  glory  is  not  in  his  power,  but  in  his  love.  He  has 
provided  a  better  way,  the  only  way  of  putting  our  sin 
from  him,  the  way  of  moral  substitution,  not  of  physical 
annihilation,  the  way  of  moral  reconciliation  and  justifica- 
tion. God  puts  his  own  knowledge  of  our  sin  far  from 
him  as  Christ  comes  nigh  and  ascends  the  throne  of  his 
majesty  in  his  perfect  confession  of  the  sinfulness  of  our 
sin,  in  his  perfect  obedience  in  our  nature  to  God's  holy 
will,  and  in  his  perfect  oneness  with  us  in  our  humilia- 
tion before  God.  God  in  Christ  can  forgive  and  forget 
sin  without  denying  himself.  Our  sin,  which  God 
always  would  forgive,  can  be  sin  forgiven  and  forgotten, 
because  it  has  been  at  last  perfectly  confessed  before  God, 
and  God's  necessary  pain  over  it  has  been  realized  and 
revealed  in  the  sufferings  in  it,  and  for  it,  of  the  Son  of 
his  love,  and  its  condemnation,  once  for  all,  has  been 
visited  upon  it  in  the  death  of  him  who  prays  in  God's 
pure  will  that  his  enemies  may  be  forgiven.  In  view 
of  Christ  and  his  Cross  there  remains  no  moral  need  that 
God  should  remember  our  sin  a  second  time  against  us, 
and  he  will  remember  it  no  more  against  us  forever. 
The  eternal  presence  of  the  Christ  in  our  nature  and 
for  us  before  the  Father  is  the  sufQcient  reason  for  his 
eternal  forgetfulness  of  our  sin  which  he  would  forgive. 
God  sees  us  in  Christ.     God  thinks  of  us  always  in 


God's  For getf Illness  of  Sin.  133 

Christ.  There  is  henceforth  no  moral  reason  why  he 
should  think  of  us  otherwise  than  in  Christ.  He  has  no 
divine  need  to  remember  us  otherwise  than  in  Christ's  one- 
ness with  us,  and  our  union  with  Christ.  We  are  Christ's, 
and  Christ  is  God's.     Therefore  all  things  are  ours. 

There  is  no  violence  done  anything  moral  or  divine  in 
God's  vicarious  forgetfulness  of  man's  sin  in  his  eternal 
memory  of  Christ  and  his  Cross.  If,  then,  God  has 
made  such  a  morally  sufficient  atonement  for  sin  that  he 
can  forgive  it,  as  he  would  forgive  it,  and  can  forget  it 
without  denying  himself,  it  follows  also  that  we  our- 
selves shall  be  able  to  put  hereafter  our  own  sin  of  this  life 
out  of  mind,  and  all  other  pure  beings  shall  be  able  to  let  it 
pass  as  a  dream  of  the  night.  The  memory  of  it,  indeed, 
we  cannot  suppose  to  be  physically  annihilated.  We 
might  recall  it,  and  others  could  recall  it,  if  moral 
reasons  for  remembering  it  shall  remain.  But  the  divine 
reconciliation  leaves  no  reason  for  any  holy  being  to 
bring  up  our  earthly  history  hereafter  to  our  shame  and 
condemnation.  We  shall  alw^ays  be  known,  it  is  true, 
as  the  ransomed  of  the  Lord.  We  shall  have  the  name 
of  the  Lamb  in  our  foreheads.  "  These  are  the  earth-born, 
whose  robes  are  made  w^hite  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb," — 
shall  be  the  grateful  story  of  our  lives  to  be  told  in 
heaven.  We,  ourselves,  shall  delight  in  the  history  of 
redemption.  We  shall  remember  that  God  has  graciously 
and  righteously  permitted  us  to  forget  those  things  which 
are  behind,  as  Ave  press  forward,  forgiven  spirits,  into  the 
perfections  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  In  the  knowledge 
of  the  forgiveness  of  sins  are  now  new  births  of  the  spirit, 
and  the  soul  whose  sin  has  once  been  divinely  forgiven  and 


134  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

forgotten  may  in  that  glad  consciousness  begin  to  live  a 
new  life  of  hope  in  which  all  things  shall  be  new,  and  it 
be  itself  a  new  creature  in  Christ  Jesus.  It  shall  be 
changed  from  glory  unto  glory  until  at  last  the  soul  that 
once  was  a  dark  memory  of  sin  shall  become  as  the 
image  of  Christ,  itself  renewed  and  made  pure  by  the 
grace  in  which  it  is  forgiven,  and  it  shall  cast  no  more 
shadow  in  the  light  of  God's  holy  presence. 

Thus  the  recollection  of  what  Christ  has  done  and  is 
for  us,  the  inflowing  health  of  the  new  life,  and  the 
victory  over  sin  and  death  shall  take  the  place  of  the 
self-consciousness  of  sin  and  shame,  perfectly  and  con- 
tinuously at  last,  as  even  now  they  begin  in  part  and  in 
the  best  moments  among  Christians  to  do.  The  world's 
history  of  sin  and  death  shall  become  a  strain  of  gratitude 
and  love  in  the  harmonies  of  the  new^  song  of  Moses  and 
the  Lamb.  God  shall  transform  and  transfigure  all  our 
recollection  of  sin  and  suffering  into  the  consciousness  of 
love  and  life,  not  by  the  magic  touch  of  power  over  us, 
but  by  the  renewing  touch  of  his  grace ; — as  he  changes 
the  dark  cloud  of  the  night  into  the  glory  of  the  dawn 
by  causing  the  morning  light  to  shine  through  it.  There 
is  no  other  way  than  God's  gracious  way  of  moral  sub- 
stitution for  the  removal  of  the  memory  of  sin.  It  is 
not  the  violation  of  any  low^er  law  of  nature,  but  is  the 
operation  in  our  redeemed  natures  of  the  higher  law  of 
love.  The  light  of  God  in  Christ  transubstantiates  our 
dark  consciousness  of  guilt  into  joy  and  peace  in  the 
Holy  Ghost.  There  is  no  other  name  given  under 
heaven  whereby  we  must  be  saved.  Who  of  us  will  not 
accept  so  great  salvation  ? 


X. 

MAKING  FOR  OURSELVES  SOULS. 

"  3:n  jour  pali'CTtu  jc  sfjall  iatit  jour  souls." — Luke  xxi.  19. 

The  revised  translation  restores  this  word  of  Jesus  to  its 
original  force.  The  Lord  did  not  bid  his  disciples  simply 
to  possess  their  souls  in  patience.  He  told  them  that 
through  endurance  they  were  to  win  their  souls.  Souls, 
then,  are  for  us  to  win.  Literally  the  word  used  by 
Jesus  means,  procure  for  yourselves  souls.  Life  is  to  be 
to  us,  in  some  sense,  an  acquisition  of  soul.  We  should 
not  press,  indeed,  a  single  word  too  far  in  the  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture ;  but  we  may  often  folloAV  profitably, 
as  far  as  we  can,  the  direction  in  which  an  inspired  word 
may  start  up,  and  send  off,  our  thoughts.  This  active 
verb  used  by  Jesus  in  relation  to  the  soul  is  suggestive. 
The  text,  at  least,  swings  open  the  gate  to  a  stimulating 
inquiry.  How  may  the  disciples  acquire  their  own 
souls  ?  Is  it  possible  that  men  may  have  something  to 
do  in  procuring  for  themselves  souls  ?  Are  we  to  work 
with  the  Creator  in  making  our  own  souls  ?  We  usually 
think  of  human  souls  as  so  many  ready-made  products 
of  nature  bestowed  upon  us  at  birth, — so  many  recep- 
tacles for  life  of  different  sizes, — and  we  are  to  fill  them 
up  with  experience  and  education  as  best  we  can,  as  bees 
fill  their  hives.  But  Jesus  used  of  the  souls  of  his  dis- 
ciples a  word  of  purchase  and  acquisition.     We  are  to  go 

135 


136  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

into  life,  and,  as  men  in  business  gain  possessions,  we  are 
to  procure  our  souls  from  life.  Souls,  then,  may  not  be 
such  ready-made  products  of  nature  as  we  are  accustomed 
to  imagine ;  the  souls  of  men  are  possibly  but  the  seeds 
of  immortality.  They  may  be  the  germs  scattered  by  a 
Spiritual  power  in  this  soil  of  the  flesh,  and  destined  to 
spring  up,  and  to  grow,  if  Ave  do  not  succeed  in  killing 
them,  into  the  powers  of  an  endless  life.  In  some  real 
sense  a  true  life  will  be  an  acquisition  of  soul.  Its  daily 
ambition  may  be, — more  soul,  and  better  ! 

This  truth  that  we  are  to  procure  for  ourselves  souls, 
may  become  more  visible  to  us  if  we  begin  by  turning 
the  subject  over  and  looking  at  the  reverse  of  it.  You 
have  seen  men  losing  soul  in  life.  It  is  a  fact  that  the 
heat  and  drought  of  worldliness  cause  the  souls  of 
men  to  shrink.  Men's  very  souls  seem  sometimes  to 
become  dry,  hard,  and  small  in  selfishness.  The  process 
of  soul-wasting  and  soul-shrinking  is  continually  going 
on  in  the  world.  There  was  a  man  born  apparently  for 
large  things.  His  mother's  eye  brightened  as  she  looked 
down  through  the  years  away  into  his  golden  prospects. 
His  father's  pride  saw  him  climbing  thrones  of  power. 
At  thirty,  at  fifty,  people  who  knew  him  when  a  boy, 
speak  of  what  a  man  he  might  have  been.  Some  sin  at 
the  root  of  the  life  has  shrivelled  the  soul  which  once 
began  to  grow.  How  souls  born  for  nobility  shrink  in 
the  heat  of  some  ignoble  ambition  !  A  prince  of  men, 
capable  of  the  power  of  a  statesman's  idea,  enters  the 
race  for  office, — and  shrinks  to  the  measure  of  a  poli- 
tician's soul !  The  Lord  of  life  hung  out  a  pure  ideal, 
shining  like  a  star,  before  that  artist's  or  poet's  genius ; 


Making  for   Ourselves  Souls.  137 

but  his  first  success  filled  his  eye, — and  he  serves  the 
fiishion  of  the  hour  ^vllo  might  have  reigned  with  kingly 
souls !  God  ordained  that  man  to  be  a  preacher  and 
prophet  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  but  after  his  first 
larger  search  for  truth,  he  lost  in  his  much  knowledge 
the  humble  love  of  truth,  and  his  soul  shrunk  into  an 
ecclesiastic  !  Other  souls,  too,  are  dissipating  themselves 
in  pleasure  ;  or  the  grip  upon  a  man  of  his  business  may 
leave  a  soul  dry  and  juiceless  as  a  sucked  orange. 

Look  a  moment  longer  at  this  reverse  side  of  our 
truth,  even  though  it  be  not  altogether  pleasant  to  con- 
template it.  You  have  known  men — I  have — who  seem 
not  merely  to  have  lost  character  or  manhood,  but  who 
seem  actually  to  have  lost  much  of  their  human  nature 
in  courses  of  sin.  They  seem  to  have  hardly  any  soul 
left  with  which  to  respond  to  the  common  feelings  and 
motives  of  humanity.  You  found  that  old  acquaintance 
living  on  the  husks  of  the  world,  and  you  tried  to  give 
him  somethino:  better.  He  seemed  to  have  lost  the 
power  to  receive  it.  You  tried  to  help  him  up  again  ; 
but  he  did  not  seem  to  have  soul  enough  left  to  stand  up 
even  when  helped.  Such  men  have  lost  the  power  to 
feel  themselves  what  others  feel  for  them.  They  seem 
to  have  had  the  human  nature  eaten  out  of  them ;  and 
they  live  stolid,  insensate,  like  the  brutes  that  perish. 
"VVe  will  not  say  they  are  hopeless  ;  we  should  not  say 
God's  grace  may  not  still  reach  down,  and  touch  them, 
and  bring  back  living  soul  to  them ;  but  when  we  see 
them,  and  perceive  how  our  common  human  nature, 
which  has  grown  in  some  others  into  souls  so  large,  lofty, 
and  fruitful,  has  shrunk  back  in  them  into  its  roots,  and 


138  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

become  slirivelled  and  dead,  we  can  understand  better 
what  Jesus  meant  when  he  said,  "  Fear  him  wlio  is  able 
to  destroy  both  soul  and  body  in  hell !  '^ 

Fvom  all  the  wretched  knowledge  forced  upon  us  by 
the  daily  record  of  the  evil  of  the  world,  it  is  to  my  pur- 
pose to  seize  now  only  upon  this  single  particular,  that 
sin  is,  or  at  least  seems  to  be,  destructive  of  human 
nature  in  men,  exhaustive  of  their  very  souls.  Milton's 
Satan,  so  strong  and  commanding  in  his  Satanic  purpose, 
may  be  a  correct  picture  of  what  sin  was  when  it  began ; 
but  the  picture  of  an  insensate  drunkard,  a  senseless 
idiot,  may  be  a  more  correct  delineation  of  Satan  bound. 
*^  Sin,  when  it  is  finished," — so  the  Scripture  assures  us, 
which  experience  begins  already  to  verify, — '^  bringeth 
forth  death." 

Keeping  in  mind  this  knowledge  of  the  possible 
wasting  of  a  soul  in  the  world,  turn  the  truth  over  again, 
and  contemplate  the  happier  process  of  soul-acquisition. 
We  all,  from  our  youth  up,  and  down  through  old  age, 
would  wish  to  gain  more  soul  and  larger — but  how  ?  In 
what  ways  are  we  to  set  about  procuring  for  ourselves 
souls  ? 

The  first  thing  for  us  to  do  is  the  thing  which  those 
men  had  already  done  to  whom  Jesus  gave  this  promise 
that  they  should  win  their  souls.  What  they  had  done — 
the  first  decisive  step  which  they  had  taken  in  the  work 
of  finding  their  lives — was  not,  indeed,  to  acquaint  them- 
selves with  all  knowledge,  or  to  peer  into  all  mysteries. 
They  had  not  even  lingered  at  the  doors  of  the  school 
of  the  Rabbles.  But  when  One  who  spake  as  never 
man  spake,  and  who  looked  into  men's  souls  with  the 


Making  for   Ourselves  Souls.  139 

liglit  of  a  divine  Spirit  in  his  eye,  came  walking  upon 
the  beach  where  they  were  mending  their  nets,  and  bade 
them  leave  all  and  follow  him,  they  heard  their  own 
being  commanded  as  by  the  king  of  truth,  and  at  once 
they  left  all  and  followed  him.  They  counted  not  the 
cost;  they  obeyed,  when  they  found  themselves  com- 
manded by  God  in  Christ.  This  promise, — Ye  shall 
wdn  your  souls,  was  addressed  to  men  who  had  surren- 
dered themselves  wholly  to  that  which  they  had  seen,  and 
knew  of  God.  It  was  a  pledge  of  soul  made  to  men  who 
had  the  wdlls  of  disciples.  Two  simple  words  had  been 
repeated  more  than  once  in  their  hearing ; — "  Repent,'' 
^'  believe  f — and  they  were  willing  to  make  both  those 
words  facts  of  their  daily  purpose  and  conduct.  This 
prime  condition  of  winning  our  souls  remains  unchanged, 
and  no  simpler  or  more  searching  words  for  it  can  be 
framed  than  those  first  requirements  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
every  man  ;  "  Repent,"  "  believe.''  If  a  man  wishes  in 
all  sincerity  to  gain  his  own  soul,  he  must  begin  by 
turnino-  ^\dth  a  will  from  the  sin  of  the  world  which  he 
knows  has  laid  foul,  destructive  hand  upon  his  life ;  he 
must  rise,  and  meet  duty,  trusting  himself  with  all  his 
heart  to  every  whisper  of  truth  and  echo  of  God  within 
him.  The  first  step  in  the  way  of  acquiring  our  souls, 
let  me  repeat,  is  the  decision  of  discipleship.  It  is'  not 
to  entertain  this  feeling,  or  to  possess  that  knowledge, 
but  to  put  our  "svills  into  God's  will  as  the  disciples  of 
old  left  all  and  followed  the  Master.  How  can  a  man 
expect  to  gain  a  soul  worth  keeping,  unless  he  first  is 
willing  to  work  with  God  in  making  his  ow^n  life  ?  We 
put,  thus,  the  condition  of  winning  our  souls  in  the  most 


140  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

general  principle  of  it  when  we  say  it  is  to  have  the  will 
of  the  penitent  who  Mould  believe ;  it  is  to  bring  our  own 
purj)oses  and  desires  of  life  to  the  decision  of  discipleship. 
Are  we  willing,  at  the  core  of  our  own  thought  of  our- 
selves willing,  to  be  disciples  of  the  Truth,  to  be  disciples 
of  the  Love  ?  I  speak  not  now  of  the  particular  forms,  or 
duties,  in  which  this  spirit  of  obedience  may  be  realized. 
With  the  open  Gospels  before  us,  and  life's  next  duty  at 
hand,  it  is  not  hard  for  us  to  put  our  own  decision  of 
discipleship  to  the  test.  The  forms  of  conversion  may 
be  manifold  as  are  the  fashions  of  the  sunrising.  The 
essential  thing  in  Christian  discipleship  is  to  be  really 
willing  to  do  the  Lord's  will.  In  proportion,  therefore, 
as  Jesus  Christ  makes  God  real  to  men,  and  reveals  the 
righteousness  of  God  all  glorious  and  commanding  before 
us,  in  that  degree  does  his  Gospel  bring  our  souls  to  a 
crisis ;  and  we  determine  whether  we  will  win  or  lose 
ourselves,  as  we  decide  duty  and  obey  truth  when  the 
right  thing  and  the  true  thing  to  be  thought  or  done 
shine  before  us,  a  revelation  from  God  to  us,  in  Jesus 
Christ.  I  am  confounding  this  simple  essential  of  the 
disciples'  will  with  no  doubtful  disputation ;  I  am  say- 
ing that  every  man  to  whom  the  Gospel  is  preached  can 
find  not  far  from  him  in  his  own  path  of  life  the  point 
of  decision  across  which  he  may  step  forth  to  his  work 
as  a  Christian  disciple.  He  will  not  have  to  look  far  or 
long  for  the  duty  or  the  conviction  which  shall  bring  to 
the  judgment  his  inner  purpose  to  go  his  own  way,  or  to 
follow  God  through  his  life ;  and  that  place  in  our  path  of 
life  where  the  disciple's  decision  is  to  be  made  will  always 
be  marked  in  some  scarce  mistakable  manner  by  these 


Making  for   Ourselves  Sotcls.  141 

two  first  requirements  which  Jesus  made  the  narrow  gate 
into  his  kingdom, — ^^  Repent/'  "  believe/' 

But  after  we  have  made  the  Christian  decision,  after 
we  have  determined  that  to  the  best  of  our  knowledge 
and  belief  we  will  be  disciples — how  then  are  we  to 
work  with  God  in  making  our  own  souls  ?  The  answer 
to  this  inquiry  may  not  only  be  of  help  to  those  who 
have  confessed  Christ  as  their  Lord,  but  also  to  those 
who  in  any  doubt  or  unbelief  think  often  they  would  be 
glad  if,  like  disciples  of  old,  they  could  find  their  Mes- 
siah. For  the  methods  of  living  and  the  principles  of 
conduct  which  are  profitable  to  Christians,  may  prove 
also  the  right  way  for  those  who  would  find  life's  Truth 
and  Lord. 

I  answer  then,  secondly,  we  are  to  acquire  soul  by 
living  now  with  all  the  soul  we  do  have.  If  we  are  to 
win  souls  from  life,  we  must  put  our  whole  souls  into 
life ;  but  the  trouble  with  us  is  that  we  often  do  not. 
We  live  half-hearted,  and  with  a  certain  reserve  often 
of  ourselves  from  our  every-day  life  in  the  world.  But 
you  remember  how  Jesus  insisted  that  his  disciples  should 
serve  God  and  love  man  with  all  their  souls,  and  with 
all  their  strength.  The  way  to  gain  more  soul  and  better 
is  to  live  freely  and  heartily  with  all  the  soul  we  do 
have.  A  little  reflection  may  suffice  to  show  us  how 
much  is  involved  in  such  statements. 

There,  for  example,  is  a  man  who  is  putting  his  will 
into  his  business ;  yet  he  is  leaving  some  conviction  of 
the  truth  which  his  life  ought  to  seek  out  of  his  work. 
He  is  toiling  like  a  slave  at  his  task,  but  not  giving  his 
immortal  self  the  benefit  of  so  much  as  a  Sabbath  hour's 


142  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

outlook  towards  a  world  of  freedom.  He  is  doing,  per- 
haps, his  duty  towards  those  dependent  upon  him,  but 
not  allowing  himself  daily  the  inspiration  of  a  moment's 
prayer  for  light  and  life.  He  is  like  a  Swiss  peasant 
among  the  Alps,  bearing  steadily  his  burdens,  but  never 
looking  up.  The  traveller  will  forget  all  the  weariness 
of  the  way  as  he  looks  up  and  sees  the  Yungfrau's  crys- 
tal peak  rising  into  the  evening\s  cloud,  leaving  him 
thinking  of  the  great  Avhite  throne,  and  the  glory  that 
excelleth.  Then,  still  another  man  is  living  somcAvhat 
religiously,  but  not  throwing  himself  heartily  into  the 
opportunities  of  his  life.  He  may  have  worked  his  way 
up  to  affluence.  His  property  represents  will,  brains, 
self-denials,  persistent  toil.  So  far  that  man  has  done 
well.  He  has  earned  what  he  has.  He  has  put  himself 
into  his  w^ork.  But  many  lives  just  at  this  point  seem 
to  stop  short.  That  man  who  has  put  himself  honor- 
ably into  the  toil  of  making  money  needs  also  to  go  on 
and  put  his  whole  soul  into  the  work  of  seeing  it  well 
spent.  A  good  man  has  only  half  done  his  life's  work, 
he  has  only  improved  half  his  opportunity,  if  he  has 
succeeded  in  making  a  fortune,  and  then  fails  in  seeing 
it  started  oif  in  the  best  possible  directions  before  he  dies. 
A  man  may  gain  sterling  qualities  of  character  in  achiev- 
ing success,  honorable  success,  in  business ;  and  he  may 
gain  still  more  soul  and  better  in  employing  the  same 
powers  by  which  he  made  his  money  in  seeing  to  it  that 
it  shall  be  put  to  the  best  possible  uses  in  the  world 
which  he  is  soon  to  leave.  In  general  we  fail  to  acquire 
souls  for  ourselves  from  life  wlienever  we  settle  back  into 
ourselves,  and  do  not  throw  our  hearts  into  every  day's 


Making  for   Ourselves  Souls.  143 

opportunities.  Another  person — to  continue  this  obser- 
vation of  the  manner  in  which  Ave  easily  leave  whole 
powers  and  ranges  of  ourselves  out  of  our  habits  of  life — 
is  thoughtlessly  letting  the  best  enthusiasms  of  his 
youth  pass  by,  while  he  loiters  on  the  shores  of  his  own 
prospects,  never  spreading  a  sail  to  the  heavenly  airs 
which  invite  him  to  set  forth.  He  hesitates  to  commit 
himself  to  the  influences  which  are  sent  from  above ;  he 
follows  no  far  purpose ;  and  by  and  by  that  man  w^ill  be 
found,  as  so  many  are  found,  left  hopelessly  aground  in 
his  own  oozy  selfisliness ;  a  heavenly  gale  cannot  stir  him 
now — his  life's  opportunity  has  ebbed  far  aAvay  !  Here 
is  another  man  who  is  living  vigorously  and  even  com- 
batively in  a  part  of  his  own  soul.  He  makes  his  reason 
his  castle.  He  sallies  forth  in  every  direction  from  that. 
He  has  his  troops  of  arguments  always  under  arms,  and 
treats  the  Avhole  domain  of  truth  as  a  land  which  his 
understanding  is  to  conquer  and  subdue.  But  this  is  a 
very  narrow  way  of  thinking.  That  man  of  valiant 
understanding  resembles  the  medieval  baron  in  his  castle 
on  the  Rhine.  That  argumentative,  warlike  understand- 
ing is  the  feudal  baron  of  the  world  of  thought  and 
theology.  But  this  broad  earth  never  could  have  been 
mastered  and  explored  from  the  castles  of  feudalism ; 
and  the  whole  rich  universe  of  truth  never  can  be  won 
by  the  armed  questions  of  the  human  understanding 
only.  There  are  things  which  must  be  loved  in  order 
that  they  may  be  known.  There  are  discoveries  of  God 
to  be  made  by  our  hearts  going  out  in  humble,  happy 
ministry  through  life,  as  well  as  by  the  proud  troops  of 
our  reasonings.     The  kingdom   of    heaven    cannot  be 


144  ^^^^  Reality  of  Faith. 

taken  by  storm,  while  its  gates  may  open  of  themselves 
at  the  knocking  of  a  little  child.  This  man  who  means 
to  live  by  his  reason  does  well  as  far  as  he  goes ;  only  he 
is  leaving  much  of  his  own  soul  out  of  his  meagre  con- 
clusions— he  needs  to  go  to  school  to  his  own  heart. 
Then  the  Gospel  of  heaven  may  be  preached  to  him. 

And  so  I  might  go  on  holding  up  a  mirror  to  life,  and 
showing  how  one  after  another  of  us  lives  but  in  part, 
and  how  we  fail  to  win  more  soul  and  better  from  the 
world,  because  we  are  so  content  to  live  in  single  cham- 
bers, and  even  small  corners  of  our  o^vn  immortal  selves. 
But  above  all  these  broken,  partial  lives  of  men  look  up 
and  behold  the  Man  who  lived  never  in  part,  but  with 
all  his  heart  put  daily  into  his  life  with  men  and  for 
man.  Christ  alone  may  show  us  what  a  whole-hearted, 
whole-souled  life  should  be.  Not  only  did  he  sit  at 
meat  among  publicans  and  sinners,  and  stand  before  the 
blind  and  the  lame  offering  to  make  them  whole ;  but 
also  he  walked  in  the  midst  of  his  chosen  friends,  bind- 
ing up  their  broken,  partial  lives,  himself  the  perfect 
man,  the  author  and  the  finisher  of  their  faith.  He 
completes  lives.  He  gives  soul  and  heart  abundantly  in 
lif(;.  Has  he  not  said  we  are  to  love  God  with  all  our 
minds,  and  all  our  liearts,  and  all  our  strength  ?  '^  Yes,'' 
some  one  thinks,  "  but  how  can  I  in  my  little  tread-mill 
of  a  life,  in  my  circumscribed  sphere,  put  my  whole  soul 
into  it,  live  with  all  my  miglit  ?  I  wish  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  life  into  whicli  I  could  throw  all  my  soul ; — 
but  what  am  I  and  my  little  place  ?  I  know  I  am  not 
living  with  all  my  heart."  But  you  may  !  You  may, 
if  you  are  willing  to  learn  Jesus'  secret,  and  to  find  your 


Makmg  for   Ourselves  Souls.  145 

life  while  losing  it.  You  may  not,  indeed,  live  with  all 
your  heart  and  might  in  life  up  to  its  very  close  in  the 
ways  men  often  imagine  that  they  can.  Some  have 
reached  the  heights  of  renown,  with  worlds  lying  at  their 
feet,  and  yet  their  souls  have  been  cold  and  restless  as 
the  winds.  And  souls  large  and  satisfied  have  been  won 
in  the  little  valleys  of  this  world.  Whether  we  gain 
soul  from  life  depends  not  so  much  upon  the  work  great 
or  small  which  God  gives  us  to  do,  as  it  does  upon  the 
willingness  with  which  we  go  to  it,  and  the  spirit  which 
we  keep  while  doing  it.  You  remember  it  was  not  he 
who  gave  a  cup  of  cold  water  only,  but  he  who  gave  it 
in  the  name  of  a  disciple,  of  whom  Jesus  said,  "  He 
shall  in  no  wise  lose  his  reward."  Perhaps  in  the  very 
effort  it  may  cost  us  to  put  our  hearts  into  little  things — 
to  do  common  things  as  disciples  heartily  as  unto  the 
Lord, — may  be  the  exercise  of  soul  which  God  has 
appointed  for  us  that  thereby  we  may  gain  capacity  of 
spirit  for  the  whole  service  of  heaven.  Right  here  it 
may  help  us  to  come  back  to  our  text.  In  your  patience 
ye  shall  mn  your  souls.  Xot  many  of  those  disciples 
to  whom  Jesus  was  then  speaking  became  distinguished 
Christians.  They  had  no  great  part  to  play  in  this 
world.  All  but  three  or  four  of  the  t^^elve  are  only 
names  to  us.  But  every  man  of  them  had  a  splendid 
chance  to  win  soul  by  endurance.  God  gives  to  common 
people  this  opportunity  of  winning  on  earth  souls  large 
enough  and  good  enough  to  appreciate  by  and  by  what 
heaven  is.  Patience  may  be  the  making  of  a  soul. 
That  regiment  of  men  is  held  all  the  morning  waiting 
under  fire.     They  broke  camp  with  enthusiasm  enough 

10 


146  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

to  sweep  them  up  to  any  line  of  flame.  But  they  are 
held  still  through  long  hours.  They  might  show 
splendid  courage  in  action  ;  but  the  orders  are  to  stand. 
Only  to  stand  still  under  fire  !  But  that  day  of  endur- 
ance is  enough  to  make  a  veteran  of  the  recruit  of 
yesterday.  The  discipline  of  waiting  under  life's  fire 
makes  veteran  souls.  Through  the  habit  of  endurance 
God  trains  often  his  best  souls.  If  you  keep  up  heart 
in  your  life  of  trial,  by  that  patience  what  a  soul  for 
God's  kingdom  may  be  won  ! 

The  vital  truth  I  have  been  trying  thus  to  put  into 
words  would  become  self-evident,  if  we  could  brush  for 
a  moment  this  film  of  sense  from  our  spirits  and  see  the 
souls  of  men  as  they  are  forming  themselves  in  this 
world.  If  we  could  see  the  souls  of  men  as  they  go 
about  their  lives  here  ;  if  we  could  behold  how  souls  in 
men  are  living  or  dying;  then  every  word  of  Jesus' 
Gospel, — its  awful  warnings,  its  great  benedictions, — 
would  also  be  seen  by  us  to  be  true  to  the  life.  Behold, 
there  is  a  soul  in  a  palace  shrinking  into  itself!  There 
is  a  soul  in  a  small  place  growing  capable  of  all  heaven  ! 
Yonder  comes  a  soul  full  of  laughter  and  song,  but  its 
own  light  is  going  out  in  darkness.  Thither  goes  a  soul 
trembling  along  one  of  life's  hard  ways  of  duty,  and 
before  it,  unseen,  God's  angel,  and  after  it,  into  the  gates 
of  the  city,  more  treasures  than  it  has  ever  dreamed  of. 
There  is  a  soul  bending  to  its  appointed  work  in  the 
world,  and  in  its  humble  dutifulness  becoming  strong  in 
grace,  equal  at  length  to  the  companionship  of  the  sons 
of  God  in  their  high  tasks.  And  there,  withdrawn  from 
the  world,  in  a  sick-chamber,  waiting  quietly,  almost 


Making  for   Ourselves  Souls.  147 

alone  in  old  age,  is  a  soul  becoming  seasoned  and  fragrant, 
and,  lo !  through  suffering  and  waiting  it  has  won  from 
life  what  power  to  receive  a  whole  heaven  of  sunny- 
peace  !  How  different  life  must  look — how  different 
what  we  call  sometimes  its  strange  providences  must 
look — to  the  eye  of  one  above  who  can  see  souls,  and 
how  they  are  forming  for  the  endless  life  !  And  our 
own  souls — is  this  world  absorbing  and  exhausting  them, 
or  by  the  grace  of  God  are  we  transmuting  all  our  work 
and  experience  of  life  into  more  soul  and  sweeter  ?  My 
friends,  am  I  not  bringing  to  you  from  this  word  of  the 
Lord  a  very  simple  yet  all-sufficient  test  for  ever}i:hing 
you  are  doing  or  planning  in  your  lives  ?  Can  I  acquire 
soul  by  it  ?  Be  sure,  any  course  of  life  which  causes 
any  shrinkage  of  soul  is  not  right.  The  open  Christian 
life  is  constant  enlargement  of  heart.  Long  ago  the 
Hebrew  poet  looked  up,  and  saw  that  the  soul  that  runs 
in  the  way  of  the  Lord's  commandments  is  enlarged. 
"  Be  ye  also  enlarged,'^  said  an  Apostle,  in  Jesus'  name. 
His  Gospel  does  not  come  to  you  and  me  with  a  close 
system  of  restrictions  confronting  us  on  every  hand  with 
unnatural  restraints.  Christ  does  for  us  what  Satan 
offered  to  do  for  Christ,  but  never  had  the  power  to  do ; — 
he  gives  us  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world,  because  he 
gives  us  receptive  souls  and  pure  hearts  for  all  God's 
works  and  worlds.  All  things  are  yours,  for  ye  are 
Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's.  You  shall  be  disciples  of 
the  Divine  Man.  You  are  here  for  a  little  while  to  pro- 
cure for  yourselves  souls,  and  to  help  others  win  their 
souls.  God's  Spirit  is  here  with  you  to  give  you  hearts 
in  sympathy  with  all  Godlike  things.     Grieve  not  that 


148  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

Holy  Spirit.  Beware  of  anything  which  helps  kill  soul. 
A  man's  life  consisteth  not  in  the  abundance  of  the 
things  which  he  possesseth.  Acquire  soul !  Let  us  be 
more  than  content  with  life,  let  us  glory  rather  even 
in  its  trial  and  tribulation,  because  we  may  gain  every 
day  soul  from  it, — more  soul  and  sweeter  ! 


XI. 

JESUS'  METHOD  OF  DOING  GOOD. 

"  But  Itsns  pcrcttbinig;  tf)cir  nasoninigs,  ansbacrtiJ  anb  saib  unto 
Ibcnx,  £elli)at  nasoii  jt  in  pour  ijtarts?  SMijttijcr  is  tasijcr  to  sap, 
®f)2  sins  art  for^ibm  tf)«;  or  to  sag,  Erisi  anij  faaalk?" — Luke 
V.  22-23. 

My  sermon  this  morning  has  gro^\Ti  out  of  some 
thoughts  upon  life  which  came  to  me  while  attending 
this  last  week  the  opening  of  the  present  criminal  term 
of  our  Superior  Court.  I  thought  here  in  this  court- 
room are  represented  so  many  forces  which  go  to  make 
the  world  what  it  is.  The  honorable  Court,  its  officers, 
and  array  of  counsel,  represent  certain  conservative 
forces  in  that  complex  thing  which  we  call  life.  The 
idlers  upon  the  benches  with  nothing  better  to  do  than 
to  look  on,  represent  certain  other  forces  of  society  of 
which  they  are  the  products.  And  the  prisoners 
arraigned  for  trial  represent  also  more  than  their 
wretched  selves ;  they  stand  for  certain  forces  which  go 
to  make  life  what  it  is.  Many  of  those  prisoners  were 
boys.  Their  misdemeanors  were  their  own  acts  for 
which  they  must  be  put  to  plead ;  but  those  boys  are  them- 
selves also  resultants  of  certain  forces  at  work  in  human 
life.  A  regular  docket  of  criminals,  and  a  regular  pro- 
portion of  boys  among  them  indicate  certain  forces  in 
society  operating  with  something  like  uniform  causation. 

149 


1 50  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

Some  very  serious  inquiries  are  brought  before  us 
when  we  look  behind  persons  to  the  forces  which  are 
w^eaving  Hfe,  and  marring,  while  they  make,  its  pattern. 
There  is  a  certain  regularly  recurring  outcome  of  misery, 
want,  and  crime.  That  docket  of  the  court  stands  for 
an  almost  constant  waste  in  the  process  of  human  life. 
These  human  forces  work  wastefully.  There  are  lost 
lives.  Must  such  waste  and  loss  run  on  forever  ?  The 
criminal  classes  indicate  the  worst  waste  of  human 
forces ;  but  by  no  means  all  the  loss  of  power  in  life. 
Not  only  at  the  bottom,  but  at  the  top,  and  all  through 
human  society,  there  is  mal-adjustment  of  forces,  friction, 
and  consequent  waste.  We  speak  in  a  familiar  but 
expressive  phrase  of  the  wear  and  tear  of  life.  What 
shall  ever  restore  the  harmony  of  forces,  and  make  life 
do  perfect  w  ork  ? 

The  question  suggested  by  that  hour  in  a  court-room 
was,  what  power  shall  be  beforehand  with  these  products 
of  crime  ?  And  this  question  once  started  takes  wider 
scope  :  Is  there  any  one  reorganizing  force  of  human 
life  ?  Human  life  is  one  vast  problem  of  forces  ; — is  it 
only  the  dreamer  who  would  labor  and  pray  for  the 
perfect  adjustment  of  life's  forces  to  perfect  work  ?  Or 
do  Christians  mean  something  real  when  they  pray, 
*^  Thy  kingdom  come  ?  "  Look  at  this  wear  and  waste 
of  life  more  closely.  The  trouble  is  not  merely  that 
there  are  so  many  loose  ends  of  life ;  but  the  forces 
which  ought  to  work  together  and  weave  life  harmo- 
niously after  one  good  pattern,  and  under  one  laAV,  are 
all  in  confusion.  Things  human  do  not  work  together 
for  good.     Is  this  all,  then,  which  we  may  hope  to  do, — 


Jesus    Method  of  Doing  Good.         151 

to  tic  up  with  our  charities  a  few  of  life's  loose  ends  ? 
to  ease  a  strain  here,  and  to  help  life  run  over  a  diffi- 
culty there  ?  to  stop  one  waste  to-day,  and  beware  of 
another  point  of  friction  to-morrow  ?  to  run  with  our 
lielp  from  this  want  of  humanity  to  the  next,  while 
nevertheless  the  great  machine  of  the  world  goes  grind- 
ing and  groaning  on,  throw^ing  some  for  a  moment  to  the 
top,  crushing  others  at  the  bottom,  and  leaving  ruins  of 
men  and  wTccks  of  homes  all  along  its  way  ?  I  can  see 
no  better  prospect  than  this — no  hope  for  the  readjust- 
ment of  this  complex  of  human  forces  to  happier  results — 
unless  somewhere  among  the  forces  which  are  making 
history  I  can  discover  a  power  great  enough  to  be  the 
centre  and  motor  of  all  others — the  one  power  around 
which  society  can  be  reorganized  and  life  harmonized 
for  perfect  work. 

Coming  from  that  court-room  with  such  thoughts  in 
mind,  I  opened  the  New  Testament  and  fell  upon  the 
chapter  which  I  have  read  as  our  lesson  this  morning. 
There,  too,  I  thought,  in  that  house  in  Capernaum  were 
represented  the  forces  which  are  weaving  and  breaking 
human  life.  Some  of  the  familiar  powers  of  this  world 
are  met  under  that  roof  We  read  ^^  there  were  Phari- 
sees and  doctors  of  the  law  sitting  by,  which  were  come 
out  of  every  village  of  Galilee  and  Judea  and  Jerusa- 
lem." These  were  the  conservators  of  morals  and  the 
law.  They  represented  the  forces  of  commandments, 
restraints,  customs,  and  traditions.  Then  a  victim  of 
the  palsy  was  let  down  into  this  group  of  powers.  His 
helpless  paralysis  brings  also  the  destructive  powers  of 
life  tangibly  into  their  midst.     His  body  was  a  living 


152  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

imao;e  of  death.  Thus  the  forces  of  natural  and  moral 
evil  were  thrown  together  with  the  conservative  powers 
of'  Israel,  and  with  the  many  mixed  motives  and  ten- 
dencies of  human  nature,  in  that  pushing  multitude  who 
crowded  the  hall,  and  spoiled  the  air,  in  that  house  in 
Capernaum. 

But  in  the  midst  of  these  common  forces  of  life, 
there  is  present  another  Power  such  as  the  world  has 
not  seen  before.  Calm,  self-centred,  waiting  his  hour, 
this  Power  of  God  stands  in  the  midst  of  this  multitude 
of  the  powers  of  this  Vv^orld.  The  simple  narrative  of 
file  Gospel — too  simple  to  have  been  invented — describes 
the  appearance  of  a  higher  force,  its  method  of  work- 
ing, its  immediate  result.  The  narrative  names  it  the 
power  of  the  Lord  to  heal  with  Jesus  Christ.  One 
other  force,  indeed,  besides  those  just  mentioned,  comes 
in  and  quietly  works  with  this  healing  power  of  the 
Lord.  It  is  a  not  altogether  unknown  force  of  human 
life.  It  is  one  of  the  quietest  and  least  obtrusive,  but 
one  of  the  most  persistent  forces  of  human  nature. 
Kings  have  sought  to  crush  it  out  with  armies ;  but, 
though  trampled  under  foot  of  men,  it  has  sprung  up 
again  unconquered.  No  flames  have  been  able  to  quench 
it ;  no  sufferings  have  broken  its  strength ;  it  is  mightier 
than  the  sword ;  yet  it  may  be  hidden  in  a  woman's 
heart ; — I  speak  of  the  power  of  faith,  invisible  to  the 
multitude  which  crowded  that  house  in  Capernaum,  but 
which  was  revealed  at  once  to  Jesus  who  saw  the  faith 
of  the  men  who  let  the  sick  of  the  palsy  down  through 
the  roof.  Such,  then,  are  the  forces  of  the  problem  of 
life, — scribes,   doctors   of   the   law,   the   multitude   of 


yes  US    Method  of  Doing  Good.         153 

human  wants  crowding  together,  faith  letting  a  palsied 
man  down  through  the  roof,  and  One  in  the  midst  of 
whom  the  evangelist  bears  witness,  ^^  The  power  of  the 
Lord  was  with  him  to  heal." 

If  we  take  the  problem  which  I  brought  from  the 
court-room  back  to  this  scene  narrated  in  the  Gospels, 
the  question  as  to  the  forces  of  life  will  resolve  itself  for 
us  directly  into  this  inquiry :  Does  Jesus  of  Nazareth 
in  the  midst  of  that  multitude,  and  before  that  palsied 
man,  represent  a  power  sufficient  to  reorganize  humanity, 
and  to  bring  forth  from  life  perfect  work  ?  Is  Jesus  in 
the  midst  of  all  known  human  and  social  forces  the  har- 
monizing and  healing  power  of  God  ?  If  he  is,  we 
need  no  better  reason  for  worshipping  him.  If  the 
power  to  reorganize  life  harmoniously  is  with  the  Man 
who  stood  conscious  of  divine  mastery  over  all  the 
powers  represented  in  that  house  in  Capernaum,  then  we 
need  no  further  reason  for  making  a  religion  of  his 
Gospel. 

Let  me  remark  here  that  in  this  method  of  approach 
to  Christ  and  Christianity  w^e  are  coming  to  it  in  a  most 
characteristic  Scriptural  way.  For  the  New  Testament 
conception  of  Christ  and  his  Gospel  is  pre-eminently  a 
conception  of  power.  It  is  not  a  saving  truth,  but  a 
saving  power  which  has  come  to  men  in  Christ.  The 
Gospel  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  Those 
Apostles  felt  the  crushing  might  of  the  world-pbwers. 
Life  to  them  w^as  a  wrestling  wdth  principalities  and 
po^vers.  The  powers  of  evil  were  in  their  experience 
very  real  and  personal.  Consequently  their  conception 
of  Christ's  Gospel  is  formed,  not  in  the  mould  of  wisdom 


154  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

or  philosophy,  but  of  power.  Run  over  in  a  concord- 
ance the  passages  of  the  New  Testament  cited  under  the 
word  power,  and  see  how  the  original  Apostolic  form  of 
Christianity  was  moulded  in  the  experience  of  redemp- 
tive power.  From  the  beginning  Jesus'  preaching  of 
the  Gospel  of  the  kingdom  was  with  power.  The  sev- 
enty received  power  over  all  hurtful  things.  The  fare- 
well word  of  the  risen  Lord  to  the  wondering  disciples 
was :  "All  power  is  given  unto  me."  The  promise  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  was  a  Pentecost  of  power.  The  first 
martyr  was  known  as  a  man  full  of  faith  and  power. 
The  missionary  Apostle  knew  that  his  poor  human 
speech  was  in  the  demonstration  of  the  Spirit  and  of 
power.  And  so  on  through  the  epistles  the  ever-recur- 
ring note,  struck  with  no  uncertain  sound,  is,  The  Gospel 
is  the  power  of  God.  This  certainly  is  the  impression 
which  that  man  of  Nazareth,  who  stood  once  in  that 
throng  of  conflicting  life-forces  at  Capernaum,  made 
upon  those  who  saw  him,  and  left  indelibly  stamped 
upon  the  world, — the  impression  of  power ; — the  power 
of  God  was  with  him  to  heal. 

If  we  seek  thus  to  enter  into  the  original  Apostolic 
possession  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  as  the  power  of  the 
Lord  with  men,  the  narrative  of  Jesus'  healing  the  sick 
of  the  palsy  will  let  us  at  once  into  the  method  and  suf- 
ficiency of  Jesus'  mastery  over  life.  Consider  then  for 
a  moment  the  method  of  Jesus'  working  as  disclosed  by 
this  narrative.  The  first  thing  which  he  did  was  not 
the  thing  which  he  was  expected  by  men  to  do.  His 
first  word  seemed  remote  from  the  thing  needing  then 
and  there  to  be  done.     The  friends  of  that  palsied  man 


Jesus    Metliod  of  Doing  Good.         155 

expected  the  famed  miracle-worker  to  heal  him ;  and 
instead  Jesus  said  only,  "  Man,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee." 
There  was  a  practical  work  to  be  done,  a  man  wanting 
help.  And  although  his  friends  believed  that  Jesus 
might  restore  him,  he  seems  to  forget  the  man's  great 
physical  need,  and  as  one  thinking  of  something  else, 
and  looking  far  away,  he  says,  "  Man,  thy  sins  are  for- 
given thee."  Then  those  doctors  of  the  law,  seeing  no 
sign  wrought,  begin  to  reason  about  Jesus'  word ;  and 
the  more  they  think  of  it,  the  more  improbable  and  far- 
fetched it  seems  to  them,  until,  as  they  reason  over  it, 
they  are  forced  by  their  Pharisaic  logic  to  conclude  that 
such  a  word  from  any  man  is  nothing  less  than  blas- 
phemy against  God,  "for  who  can  forgive  sins,  but 
God  alone?"  That  was  not  the  first  nor  the  last 
time  that  ecclesiastical  logic  has  drawn  a  correct  circle 
of  reasoning  by  which  the  living  Truth  has  been  shut 
out.  Jesus  stood  for  the  moment  looking  upon  the  dis- 
appointed faces  of  his  friends,  and  meeting  the  cruel 
eyes  of  his  enemies.  He  was  to  be  the  Messiah  ;  and  a 
palsied  man  lay  helpless  before  him,  and  he  had  spoken 
a  far-off,  ineffectual  word.  AYhere,  then,  is  the  power  for 
the  mastery  of  life  ?  Must  we  look  for  another  ?  But 
Jesus  knew  which  of  all  forces  Avorking  on  this  earth  is 
the  greatest  force ;  and  he  w^as  not  self-deceived.  He 
knew  the  higher  truth  which  the  Pharisees,  who  rea- 
soned when  they  should  have  learned,  did  not  perceive. 
He  knew  that  his  word  of  divine  forgiveness,  which 
seemed  remote  from  the  very  present  need  of  that  palsied 
man,  and  which  to  the  Pharisees  was  idle  as  a  breath  of 
air,  w^as  nevertheless  the  force  of  forces  for  the  healing 


156  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

of  the  world.  He  knew  how  to  begin  his  work  among 
men,  before  any  form  of  suffering,  with  a  word  which 
should  bring  down  to  the  soul  of  man's  need  the  power 
of  the  heart  of  God.  The  multitude  looked  on  and 
saw  the  momentary  failure,  as  it  seemed,  of  the  Christ 
of  God.  "  But  Jesus  perceiving  their  reasonings, 
answered  and  said  unto  them.  What  reason  ye  in  your 
hearts  ?  Whether  is  easier  to  say,  Thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee;  or  to  say.  Arise  and  walk?"  AYhich  is  easier? 
Which  is  the  greater  force — the  love  of  God  forgiving 
sin,  or  the  miracle  of  healing?  Jesus  began  with  the 
greatest  work.  Jesus  began  by  linking  all  his  daily 
w^orks  of  goodness  in  with  the  one  supreme  motive-force 
of  goodness  :  all  which  he  came  to  do,  and  w^hich  needed 
to  be  done  in  the  world,  he  bound  directly  upon  this 
divine  motive-power  of  love  forgiving  the  sin  of  the 
world.  Notice  the  unmistakable  contrast  between  Jesus' 
judgment  of  his  own  good  work,  and  the  popular 
opinion  in  that  house  in  Capernaum.  Which  is  easier? 
Jesus  asks,  looking  round  from  face  to  face  of  friend 
and  foe,  with  the  smile  of  a  gracious  triumph  brighten- 
ing the  pity  of  his  eye, — Which  is  easier  ?  "  But  that  ye 
may  know  that  the  Son  of  man  hath  power  on  earth  to 
forgive  sins  (he  said  unto  him  that  was  palsied),  I  say 
unto  thee.  Arise,  and  take  up  thy  couch,  and  go  unto 
thy  house.''  The  miracle,  as  it  seemed  to  the  people, 
was  not  the  greater  work  which  Jesus  knew  he  was  sent 
to  accomplish.  The  physical  miracle  followed  easily  and 
naturally  upon  the  diviner  power  of  God's  love  which 
Jesus  was  conscious  of  possessing  and  exercising  over 
the  might  of  evil,  when  he  said,  '^  Man,  thy  sins  are  for- 


yesus    Method  of  Doing  Good.        157 

given  tliee."  The  people,  wlieu  they  saw  the  lesser 
work  clone — the  miracle  of  healing, — not  comprehend- 
ing the  power  of  God  then  and  there  present  upon  the 
earth  and  working  first  the  greater  work  of  the  forgive- 
ness of  sin,  were  amazed  and  filled  with  fear,  and  said, 
"We  have  seen  strange  things  to-day.^'  And  this 
opinion  of  the  people  must  be  our  opinion  of  these 
miracles,  if  we  do  not  know  Jesus  himself  any  better 
than  those  doctors  of  the  law  at  Capernaum  had  learned 
Christ.  AYe  can  only  say  of  his  mighty  works.  These 
are  strange  things  ! — unless  we  have  learned  from  Jesus 
himself  what  the  supreme  powers  of  this  universe  are ; 
unless  we  have  learned  to  estimate  the  forces  of  this  uni- 
verse according  to  Jesus'  own  spiritual  science  of  them. 
Which  is  easier,  the  divine  victory  of  love  over  souls 
which  have  freely  sinned,  or  the  working  of  God^s  heal- 
ing power  down  among  the  lower  forces  of  things  ?  If 
we  live  and  think  altogether  down  upon  the  lower  planes 
of  nature,  knowing  gravitation  and  the  attractions  of 
matter,  but  unlearned  in  the  heart's  knowledge  of  the 
first  and  higher  forces  of  life,  and  ignorant  as  the  brutes 
that  perish  of  the  primal  law  and  supreme  power  of 
love,  then  of  course  all  Jesus'  life  and  work  will  be  a 
thing  incredible ;  we  have  not  gained  any  experience  to 
which  it  may  seem  natural.  We  must  be  skeptics  con- 
cerning ever)i:hing  supernatural  until  we  have  learned 
by  heart  a  little  of  what  Jesus  knew  of  the  larger  and 
diviner  forces  of  things ;  until,  moved  and  swayed  in 
our  own  lives  by  the  great  spiritual  powers,  we  can 
believe  also  in  the  divine  dynamics  of  the  universe. 
The  man  Avho  cannot  believe  in  miracles  may  be  right 


158  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

from  the  level  of  his  experience.  He  has  taken  an 
earthly  plane  from  which  to  look ;  and  he  is  looking  the 
wrong  way,  down  from  his  own  brain  into  the  earth,  and 
not  up  from  his  own  free  soul  into  the  heavens  towards 
the  living  God.  He  may  be  right  from  his  point  of 
view.  We  cannot,  indeed,  believe  in  mere  wonders. 
We  cannot  believe  in  an}i;hing  which  we  cannot  bring 
into  some  relation  to  our  experience,  and  under  some 
law,  or  rational  order  of  things.  If  we  are  unwilling  to 
trust  our  own  souls  in  their  consciousness  of  spiritual 
life,  we  certainly  can  have  little  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  the 
Son  of  God.  Begin  by  defining  the  whole  nature  of 
things  so  as  to  leave  spirit  and  God  out,  and  you  ought 
consistently  to  fly  in  the  face  of  history,  and  to  deny 
everything  which  you  cannot  put  together  out  of  these 
jx)or,  earthly  materials  in  your  dead  mechanism  of  a 
universe.  To  the  man,  in  a  word,  who  only  believes  in 
the  lower  and  worst  half  of  himself,  his  body,  Jesus  can- 
not be  the  Son  of  man  from  God.  I  do  not  dispute, 
therefore,  with  the  logic,  but  with  the  experience  which 
pronounces  his  incarnate  glory  and  mighty  works 
incredible.  But  if  our  own  hearts  and  souls  have  ever 
taught  us  more  than  our  eyes  can  see,  or  our  hands 
touch  ;  if  we  have  once  in  any  moment  of  free  thought, 
or  power  of  spiritual  purpose,  known  ourselves  to  be 
more  than  bodies  of  dust,  bound  to  the  unceasing  tread- 
mill of  things ;  if  we  have  ever  in  the  mastery  of  spirit 
over  things  learned  that  the  first  and  final  powers  of  this 
universe  are  in  nature  but  above  it,  spiritual,  divine, 
eternal ;  then  we  may  understand  better  Jesus'  miracles ; 
we  may  look  down  upon  them  as  he  did  from  the  higher 


ycsits    Method  of  Doing  Good,         159 

plane  of  forces  upon  which  he  lived,  and  see  that  they 
are  the  orderly  effects  of  higher  causes,  and  are  no  more 
miracles  to  the  power  of  God,  and  no  more  violations  of 
his  laws  of  nature,  than  are  our  volitions  when  they 
work  downwards  and  outwards  in  our  interference  of 
spirit  with  the  course  of  things. 

You  dip  an  oar  into  the  water,  and,  lo !  a  strange 
thing  happens  ; — the  uniform  course  of  the  stream  is  one 
way ;  and  at  the  dip  of  the  oar  in  the  stream  you  cross 
the  current,  and  go  up  stream.  Nature  never  could  have 
floated  an}i:hing  up  stream.  The  course  of  nature  for 
that  palsied  man  was  down  to  death.  Nature  never 
stops  and  turns  back  upon  itself.  Who,  then,  is  this  that 
works  against  the  stream  of  things  ?  Impossible  !  All 
those  long  river-grasses  bend  downwards  with  the  cur- 
rent. They  cannot  turn  and  float  the  other  way,  unless 
the  whole  stream  flows  backwards.  The  person  then 
who  reports  that  he  saw  those  grasses  turning  a  moment 
and  bending  the  other  way,  contradicts  our  uniform 
experience  of  that  stream.  The  river  may  run  on  for- 
ever, but  the  miracle  of  a  blade  of  grass  turned  against 
its  current  it  can  never  produce.  The  logic  is  good,  pro- 
vided the  stream  and  the  grasses  are  all.  But  a  higher 
force  chooses  to  launch  itself  on  the  river ;  and  in  the 
free  exercise  of  its  own  power  it  moves  up  against  the 
stream ;  lo !  the  grasses  bend  before  it,  and  the  dip  of  the 
oar  from  above  breaks  the  water  into  ripples  without 
reversing  the  stream.  Its  nature  is  not  violated  by  your 
boat  in  it.  The  law  of  its  flowing  simply  obeys  the 
higher  law  of  your  motion  across  it.  A  miracle  would 
be  impossible  if  nature  had  to  work  it.     Nature  is  a  con- 


i6o  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

tinuity  of  causes.  It  is  one  stream  throughout.  But 
who  knows  that  God  ever  made  nature  so  as  to  prevent 
himself  from  moving  through  it  ?  Does  the  dip  into  the 
w^ater  of  that  white  bird-wing  down  from  out  the  sky- 
violate  the  law  which  the  flowing  river  must  obey  ?  No 
more  would  the  descent  of  the  angel  of  the  Lord  into  the 
lives  of  men. 

We  need  not  stumble,  then,  at  the  miracle,  as  the 
multitude  regarded  it,  but  which  was  only  a  lesser, 
secondary  work  in  Jesus'  estimation  of  it.  It  was  per- 
fectly natural  to  him.  Before  the  miracle,  and  greater 
than  the  apparent  miracle,  was  the  power  of  God  on 
earth  forgiving  sin.  And  this  greater,  nay,  should  it 
not  be  called  this  greatest  power  of  God,  is  the  all- 
sufficient  power  for  life.  It  alone  shall  bring  forth  tlie 
new  creation,  and  cause  life  at  last  to  turn  out  perfect 
work. 

I  cannot  linger  now  upon  the  signs  and  evidences  of 
the  reorganizing  efficiency  of  this  power  in  life ;  let  me 
simply  invite  you  to  find  the  proof  of  it  by  observing  it 
in  tlie  closest  possible  contact  with  real  life.  Go  back 
and  down  until  you  come  as  close  as  you  can  to  the  real 
powers  which  make  and  mar  life.  Study,  also,  not  in 
the  books,  but  in  the  closest  possible  application  to  life 
all  the  healing  powers  which  men  may  bring  to  bear  upon 
life.  And  as  in  this  study  of  real  life  we  learn  what  sin 
is,  and  what  man's  first  need  is,  then  remember  Jesus' 
question,  "  Whether  is  easier  to  say.  Thy  sins  are  forgiven 
thee  ;  or  to  say.  Arise  and  walk  ?  '^  Learn  from  the  heart 
of  the  wants  of  the  world  the  divine  sufficiency  of  Jesus' 
greater  work.     The  first  word  of  the  Spirit  calling  forth 


ycsits    MetJiod  of  Doing  Good.        i6i 

tlie  new  creation  from  our  social  chaos  is  the  word  of 
the  forgiveness  of  sins.  It  is  a  word  greater  than  all 
oar  charities,  for  it  is  the  new-creative  word  which  God 
only  can  speak  on  earth.  Does  this  seem  to  you  in 
your  practical  philanthropy  a  Gospel  too  remote  from 
the  woes  of  men  ?  So  is  the  sun  remote  from  the  dead 
fields ;  but  the  sun  in  tlie  heavens  is  the  first  power  of 
life  on  tlie  earth.  God\s  method  of  saving  the  world  is, 
first  of  all,  by  shining  upon  it.  Social  regeneration 
begins  in  the  Gospel  of  divine  forgiveness.  I  say  this 
with  those  wretched  prisoners  behind  that  bar  in  mind  ; 
with  the  thought  before  me  of  that  mass  of  struggling, 
fermenting  humanity  heaped  up  to  fester  and  to  die  in 
the  alleys  of  our  cities ;  with  some  knowledge,  too,  of 
the  emptiness  of  much  gilded  happiness,  and  the  dead 
men's  bones  in  those  whited  sepulchres  of  homes  which 
some  passing  by  upon  the  streets  may  envy.  That  word 
which  Jesus  first  of  men  dared  speak ;  which  he  had 
authority  from  the  Father  to  speak,  when  they  laid  a 
wreck  of  a  human  form  at  his  feet,  "  Man,  thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee  ;  '^ — that  is  the  Gospel  of  power  for  our 
world  ;  that  is  the  creative  Avord  of  the  new  and  happier 
order  of  humanity.  Spin  your  reforms  around  any 
other  principle  of  power  than  this,  and  they  will  fail,  or, 
at  best,  result  only  in  partial  good.  The  Gospel  of  the 
love  of  God  forgiving  the  sin  of  the  world  is  man's  first 
need.  Our  regeneration  is  in  the  power  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Too  remote,  do  you  say,  from  men's  wants,  this  word 
of  Jesus,  always  repeated  by  his  Church?  Men  and 
women  want  bread ;  they  want  clothing  and  coal ;  they 

11 


1 62  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

want  work  and  means ;  they  want  rooms  with  air  enongh 
in  them  to  breathe  ;  they  want  recreations  and  rest ;  they 
want  a  better  cliance  at  life  ;  they  want  protection  from 
the  cruel  passions  which  prey  upon  them ;  the  people 
want  more  social  justice,  more  honesty  up  and  down 
through  society  and  between  all  classes  of  men;  they 
want  right  laws  scientifically  made,  and  executed  in 
righteousness ;  they  want  deliverance  from  the  demons 
of  demagogism,  faction,  and  vice  whose  name  is  legion ; 
they  want  many  immediate,  necessary,  and  most  practical 
reforms, — and  the  Church  invites  them  to  hear  a  Gospel 
preached,  and  to  worship  an  unseen  Saviour  from  sin  ! 

I  am  only  repeating  what  hundreds  of  people  strug- 
gling with  life,  and  smarting  under  grievances,  are  saying 
in  their  hearts  of  our  churches.  I  am  only  repeating  in 
the  language  of  present  wants  what  that  throng  of  people 
felt  in  their  hearts,  when  Jesus  himself  disappointed  the 
multitude  by  letting  for  a  moment  the  wretched,  palsied 
man  lie  helpless  at  his  feet,  while  he  spake  a  remote, 
heavenly  word  of  forgiveness.  But  as  in  that  case  soon 
appeared,  Jesus  Christ  was  right  in  the  way  he  chose  to 
begin  his  work,  and  the  people  were  all  wrong.  He  did 
the  harder  thing  first,  and  the  easier  thing  next.  And 
the  method  of  the  Church,  following  Christ's,  is  pro- 
foundly right.  It  is  practically  true.  The  Gospel  of 
divine  forgiveness  we  nuist  put  first ;  our  benevolences 
second.  Sin  is  first  to  be  mastered;  then  suffering  is 
more  easily  healed.  Go  to  the  bottom  of  all  these  human 
wants  of  which  I  have  just  been  speaking,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  them  was  somebody\s  sin.  The  sting  of  death  is 
sin.     Consider  again  those  prisoners — those  boy-tramps 


yesiLs    Method  of  Doing  Good.         163 

whose  names  were  called  iu  the  criminal  docket.  I 
know  not  who  sinned,  that  boy  or  his  parents.  I  know 
that  somebody's  sin  is  come  to  judgment  there.  Walk 
down  that  alley  of  crowded  misery.  I  know  not  who 
sinned,  that  wretched  outcast,  or  some  gentleman's  son 
I  may  have  met  in  a  ladies'  drawing  room ;  I  do  know 
that  somebody's  sin  is  the  serpent  which  has  poisoned 
that  life  ;  and  that  loathsome  heap  of  pauperism  has  been 
swept  up  and  gathered  from  the  sins  of  the  world.  I  do 
not  know  who  the  sinners  are ;  but  the  sin  I  know ;  it 
is  the  characteristic  thing  of  this  world.  An  angel  flying 
unseen  on  some  errand  of  God  through  our  skies  would 
know  this  earth  not  as  the  famed  world  of  poetry  and  art, 
of  science  and  railroads,  and  man's  mastery  over  elemental 
forces,  but  as  the  world  into  which  sin  has  come,  and 
the  world  marked  with  the  sign  of  the  Cross.  And  see- 
ing all  its  woes  and  shames,  such  ministering  spirits 
might  sing,  Praise  be  to  God  who  has  not  sent  us  thither 
to  toil  in  vain,  to  bind  up  one  wound,  wdiile  sin  opens 
another;  to  reform  one  evil  while  sin  plots  another; 
to  pluck  one  suffering  child  out  of  the  fire  while 
sin  draws  in  another;  to  wage  an  endless  warfare  of 
merciful  deeds  against  an  endless  outbreak  of  flaming 
passions ;  to  build  vineyards  over  volcanoes  ; — praises  be 
to  God  who  has  taken  the  whole  world  into  his  love,  and 
gone  to  the  source  of  all  its  history  of  evil  with  the 
power  of  his  forgiving  grace ; — Peace  on  earth !  good 
will  toward  men  !  glory  to  God  in  the  highest ! 

We  are  called  to  live  in  the  powder  of  the  Master.  A 
real  Christian  is  so  much  character-force  for  the  healing 
of  life.     If  you,  who  are  still  young,  wish  to  count  for 


164  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

something  in  tliis  world,  you  may  find  in  the  Master's 
name  and  Spirit  the  secret  and  source  of  power.  You 
may  be  in  Christ's  grace  forces  made  after  the  power  of 
an  endless  life.  The  Christlike  soul  is  power  of  God 
with  man.  It  reigns  while  it  serves.  It  finds  its  life 
while  it  loses  it. 

And  let  us  keep  always  in  mind  God's  method  in 
Christ  of  doing  good.  The  Lord's  miracle  needs  to  be 
continued  and  attested  in  all  his  churches, — first  the 
Gospel  of  forgiveness,  and  then  the  healing  charity. 
Christ's  way  of  doing  good  is  first  by  shining  upon  the 
world, — not  by  condemning  it,  but  by  shining  out  of  his 
divine  love  upon  all  men.  We  are  sent  in  his  name 
that  we,  too,  out  of  hearts  made  bright  by  the  hope  of 
his  Gospel,  may  shine  everywhere  upon  life.  "  Even  so 
let  your  light  shine  before  men,  that  they  may  see  your 
good  works,  and  glorify  your  Father  which  is  in  heaven.'' 


XII. 

THE  IMPERATIVES  OF  JESUS. 

"But  31  saj  unto  ^ou."— Matt.  v.  44. 

Jesus  speaks  in  imperatives.  He  commands  human 
nature.  The  sermon  on  the  Mount  is  a  sermon  in  the 
imperative  mood.  It  is  gracious,  but  it  is  imperative. 
Its  blessings  are  commandments.  Jesus  reconstructs  by 
his  supreme  personal  authority  the  law  and  traditions 
of  the  people.  It  is  enough  for  his  command  that  he 
speaks  it.  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said :  but  I 
say  unto  you."  "Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you."  He 
does  not  argue  with  men ;  he  commands  them.  He  speaks 
words  of  invitation,  but  his  invitations  have  behind 
them  the  imperatives  of  truth.  His  Avord,  "  Come  unto 
me,"  is  both  an  invitation  of  heavenly  grace  and  a  com- 
mand of  duty.  His  words,  "  Blessed  are  the  poor  in 
spirit ; "  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,"  and  so  on,  are 
words  of  supreme  authority  as  well  as  promises  of  grace. 
Jesus  never  speaks  for  himself  or  for  his  kingdom  one 
apologetic  word.  He  makes  demands  of  righteousness 
and  truth  upon  us. 

Recall,  in  the  first  place,  the  range  and  extent  of 
Jesus^  imperative  speech.  Jesus  keeps  up  to  his  own 
superior  level  of  conmiand  upon  all  occasions  and  before 
all  men.  He  does  not  speak  one  moment  with  com- 
manding voice,  and  another  in  beseeching  tones.      He 

165 


1 66  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

always  commands.  The  occa.sion  never  comes  for  him 
to  drop  the  clear,  gracious  imperatives  of  his  daily- 
speech,  and  to  use  such  words  of  apology  as  we  all  at 
times  must  use  over  our  work  and  our  endeavors.  For 
more  than  thirty  years  this  man  lived  among  men,  but  not 
even  in  his  conversation  with  his  chosen  friends  was 
there  ever  heard  falling  from  his  lips  one  syllable  of 
apology  for  himself  or  his  cause.  Glance  again  over 
these  Gospels,  and  observe  with  what  clear  and  ceaseless 
consistency  Jesus'  speech  keeps  up  to  the  great  impera- 
tives of  his  kingdom.  Like  the  successive  strokes  of  a 
bell  ringing  out  over  the  hills  and  down  the  valleys, 
these  imperatives  of  Jesus  sound  forth  across  the  ages  : 
Repent ;  believe  ;  Come ;  Follow  me ;  Take  up  your 
cross ;  Seek  first  the  kingdom  of  God ;  Keep  my  com- 
mandments. 

Men  like  us  occasionally  may  assume  without  offense 
an  imperative  mood  in  certain  relations  of  life,  or  before 
others  who  for  the  time  may  be  dependent  upon  us  for 
direction  or  support.  But  beyond  these  occasional  and 
limited  duties,  the  position  of  command  becomes  a  pre- 
sumption and  offense  in  men.  We  are  created  equal. 
Yet  on  all  occasions,  and  before  all  men,  Jesus  kept  his 
attitude  of  command,  while  he  lost  no  human  grace  or 
benignancy  by  his  constant  and  unmistakable  attitude  of 
authority  over  men.  He  went  into  the  temple,  and 
stood  among  the  rulers  of  the  people  as  their  Lord.  He 
opened  the  Scriptures  in  the  synagogue,  and  interpreted 
the  law  and  the  prophets  as  the  Master  even  of  those 
sacred  rolls.  He  spoke  with  authority  over  Moses. 
He  walked   the  beach    of   Gennesaret,   and  when   the 


The  Imperatives  of  yesus.  167 

people  came  crowdiDg  around  him,  he  taught  as  one 
having  authority.  He  talked  with  a  wilful  woman  at 
Ja<x)bs'  well,  and  she  who  had  had  seven  husbands,  and 
yet  could  carry  her  head  high  through  that  village  in 
Samaria,  finds  her  pride  broken,  and  is  at  last  humbled 
before  the  Stranger,  who  quietly  told  her  all  things  which 
ever  she  had  done. 

In  the  still  evening  a  master  of  Israel  comes  to 
him  ; — now  surely  he  who  through  the  day  and  among 
the  people  has  kept  up  a  brave  show  of  knowledge  of 
the  truth,  and  yielded  his  authority  to  none  who  ques- 
tioned him,  wdll  acknowledge  in  private  conversation 
with  a  master  of  Israel  his  own  questionings  and  limit- 
ations, and  the  two  sitting  together  upon  the  house-top 
under  the  stars  will  be  but  as  children  of  the  infinite 
mystery  from  which  Ave  are  born.  But  hardly  had  the 
courteous  salutation  of  the  Rabbi  been  addressed  to 
Jesus,  when  instead  of  the  humble  and  half  deprecating 
answer  which  would  have  been  for  any  man  of  us  the 
natural  answer,  clear  and  full  upon  the  night-air  sounds 
Jesus',  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  you  ! — to  be  repeated 
again  as  the  Rabbi  in  astonishment  asks  the  question  of 
bcAvilderment,  How  can  these  things  be  ?  and  to  be  fol- 
lowed and  enforced  by  the  supreme  commandment,  Ye 
must  be  born  again  ! 

Although  Jesus  may  maintain  this  constant  attitude 
of  command  before  the  Jews,  even  before  the  rulers  and 
chief  priests,  can  he  stand  in  the  calm  imperatives  of 
his  kingdom  before  the  Roman  and  his  powder?  Pilate 
asked  him,  "Art  thou  a  king  then  ?  Jesus  answered, 
Thou  sayest  that  I  am  a  king ! "     We  should  like  to 


1 68  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

have  seen  him  then ; — even  the  Roman  saw  somethmg 
which  he  had  never  seen  before  in  that  clear  eye  of 
truth  fixed  upon  him  ; — Jesus  looked  a  king  !  Pilate 
would  have  released  him.  They  put  the  crown  of 
thorns  upon  him,  and  nail  him  to  the  cross.  Now,  w^hile 
the  people  mock  him,  shall  not  his  kingliness  fall  from 
him  ?  Now  shall  not  he  who  has  lived  as  Master  die 
as  one  of  the  thieves  between  whom  he  is  crucified? 
Kay,  his  kingliness  never  forsook  him.  Dying,  he 
reigns.  Crucified,  he  is  the  King  who  with  one  word 
of  divine  authority  opens  paradise  to  the  over-awed  peni- 
tent by  his  side.  His  last  word  of  prayer  has  no  human 
weakness  in  it ;  it  is  a  prayer  of  authority,  as  well  as 
of  infinite  pity,  the  prayer  of  one  who  knows  he  has  but 
to  speak  and  he  shall  be  heard ; — "  Father,  forgive  them, 
for  they  know  not  what  they  do."  "And  when  Jesus 
had  cried  " — not  in  trembling  tones  of  our  human  weak- 
ness and  mortality,  but  ^' with  a  loud  voice" — with  voice 
even  in  death  so  commanding  that  the  centurion  standing 
by  said,  "  Certainly  this  was  a  righteous  man  ! " — "  when 
Jesus  had  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  he  said.  Father,  into 
thy  hands  I  commend  my  spirit :  and  having  said  thus, 
he  gave  up  the  ghost." 

Consider,  further,  not  only  tliat  Jesus  met  with  his 
supreme  imperative  all  men,  and  on  every  occasion, 
even  in  deatli,  Avas  commanding ;  but  also  mark  well  the 
nature  and  significance  of  those  relations  of  life,  and 
those  elements  of  luiman  nature,  over  wliicli  Jesus  quietly 
assumed  and  always  maintained  mastery.  The  miracles 
of  Jesus  are  not  the  greatest  of  his  wonderful  works. 
It  is  a  greater  assumption  of  j^ower  to  exercise  authority 


i^ 


TJie  Imperatives  of  Jesus.  169 

over  the  higher  principles  and  laws  of  our  human  nature 
than  it  is  to  claim  authority  over  the  Avinds  and  the 
waves.  The  miracle  in  the  realm  of  the  physical  will 
seem  to  me  a  secondary  and  lesser  thing,  if  I  can  once 
allow  the  greater  marvel  of  Jesus'  authority  over  the 
human  heart  and  its  most  permanent  affections.  If 
indeed  he  has  authority  to  stand  above  the  natural  laws 
of  our  affections,  to  say  to  any  mother  before  the  cradle 
of  her  child,  or  to  any  child  upon  its  mother's  bosom, — 
I  am  diviner  than  this ;  of  such  child-likeness  of  spirit 
is  my  kingdom;  love  me  more  than  all; — if  this 
miracle-worker  has  authority  to  enthrone  himself  above 
all  human  affections  as  the  Lord  of  hearts  and  the  king 
of  souls ; — then  indeed  it  would  be  an  easy  thing  for 
him  to  heal  the  sick,  or  to  make  a  great  calm  in  the  centre 
of  a  storm,  or  to  raise  the  dead.  If  I  must  worship  as 
One  from  above  the  man  who  walks  in  the  name  of 
God  the  streets  of  Capernaum,  I  need  no  longer  wonder 
that  a  woman  should  feel  coming  to  her  diseased  flesh  a 
healing  virtue  from  a  touch  upon  the  hem  of  his  gar- 
ment. The  lesser  physical  results  or  miracles  of  Jesus' 
presence  are  but  the  natural  consequences  which  might 
be  expected,  if  he  be  himself  the  Son  of  God.  The 
miracle  of  history  is  not  the  virtue  which  goes  forth 
from  Christ  along  the  edge  and  border  of  his  life  w^here 
it  touches  nature  and  natural  sequences  as  he  passes  by ; 
but  the  Man  himself  in  his  spiritual  kingliness,  Jesus 
himself  in  his  authority  over  the  souls  of  men,  is  the 
supernatural  truth  of  the  ages. 

Observe  with  what  calm  consciousness  of  right  Jesus 
assumes  this  authority  which  belongs  to  God  alone  over 


170  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

human  liearts.  Observe  how  he  never  lowers  for  one 
moment  his  authority  over  souls,  even  when  he  conde- 
scends to  the  friendships  of  Bethany  and  the  daily  inti- 
macy of  the  twelve.  The  imperative  of  Jesus'  presence 
is  always  felt  by  those  nearest  him,  even  though  he  veils 
it  from  them,  and  will  not  say  unto  them  as  yet  many 
things  which  he  sees  they  cannot  bear.  Jesus'  superhu- 
man authority  is  most  profoundly  felt  by  those  who 
know  him  best.  To  the  disciples  Jesus  was  not  brother, 
not  companion,  not  friend,  or  rather  he  was  all  these  as 
he  was  more  than  these  to  them ;  to  Peter  and  John,  to 
all  the  tAvelve,  even  to  Judas  who  hastily  betrayed  him, 
Jesus  was  INIaster.  What  saitli  the  Master  ?  What  will 
the  INIaster  do  ?  His  word  ended  their  questionings  by 
the  way.  His  word  decided  their  next  day's  journey. 
His  w^ord  was  ahvays  law.  They  followed ;  he  went 
before  them  in  the  way ;  the  disciples  were  amazed,  yet 
still  they  followed  Jesus  in  the  way.  This  supreme 
mastery  over  human  wills  and  human  hearts,  over  life's 
most  sacred  and  commanding  relationships  and  friend- 
ships, characterized  Jesus  from  his  boyhood  to  his  cross. 
You  liave  sometimes  let  drop  the  sacred  page  as  you 
have  read  how  his  parents  sought  him  and  found  him 
teacliing  in  the  temple,  and  you  have  wondered  whether 
that  strange  answer  to  Mary  was  the  perfect  example  of 
the  dutifulness  of  childhood.  Mary  wondered  too  ;  but 
recognizing  already  in  the  child  Jesus  something  diviner 
tlian  her  mother's  love  and  its  sacred  claims,  she  hid  that 
saying  of  the  holy  One  in  hor  lieart.  AVere  he  only  the 
cliild  with  no  higher  authority  over  our  human  relation- 
ships beginning  to  lead  him  from  his  birth,  then  would 


The  Imperatives  of  Jesus.  171 

that  scene  and  that  answer  be  strange  mdeed.  But  even 
the  child  Jesus  exercised  authority  over  the  relationship 
of  childhood.  He  was  more  than  the  child  whom  his 
parents  found.  And  you  remember  how  afterwards 
when  some  one  said,  "  Behold,  thy  mother  and  thy 
brethren  stand  without,  desiring  to  speak  with  thee," 
another  word  of  authority  over  life's  nearest  and  holiest 
relationships  fell  at  once  from  his  lips :  "  But  he 
answered  and  said  unto  him  that  told  him.  Who  is  my 
mother?  and  who  are  my  brethren?  And  he  stretched 
forth  his  hand  toward  his  discij)les,  and  said,  Behold  my 
mother  and  my  brethren  !  For  ^vhosoever  shall  do  the 
will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven,  the  same  is  my 
brother,  and  sister,  and  mother." 

You  could  not  utter  such  strange  words  to  your 
mother.  They  would  be  blasphemy  upon  our  lips  in 
our  homes.  They  were  pure,  divine  imperatives  upon 
the  blessed  lips  of  the  Christ.  He  could  speak  them 
because  he  is  greater  than  all.  He  puts  himself  above 
all  homes  and  all  natural  affections  because  in  him  is 
the  truth  of  all  love  and  the  completion  of  all  human 
relationships.  We  have  seen  him  in  the  temple  of  the 
Jews  casting  out  the  money-changers,  and  exercising 
authority  by  his  o^\^n  right  in  his  Father's  house.  But 
herein  is  a  more  marvellous  thing.  He  comes  to  the 
homes  of  men.  He  enters  the  temple  of  the  human 
heart.  And  there,  amid  its  most  sacred  associations, 
over  its  purest  affections,  he  sets  his  throne,  and  says,  I 
am  Saviour  and  Lord. 

Thus  far  I  have  been  dwelling  upon  the  range  and 
extent  of  the  authority  exercised  by  Jesus.     We  learn 


172  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

from  the  Gospels  that  it  was  universal  iu  its  extent,  and 
supreme  iu  its  height.  No  man  escapes  from  it;  and 
there  is  nothing  in  human  nature  which  is  not  put 
beneath  it.  Before  the  reason,  the  conscience,  and  the 
lieart  of  man  Jesus  stood  declaring  himself  to  be  the 
truth,  the  way,  and  the  life. 

We  must  needs  ask  one  another,  therefore,  in  the 
second  place,  concerning  the  nature  or  right  of  this 
supremacy  of  the  Christ.  Of  what  kind  this  authority 
of  Jesus  is  we  find  only  partially  explained  in  the 
Gospels  which  set  forth  its  power  and  right.  We  can- 
not fully  comprehend  it  in  our  study  of  it.  The 
authority  of  Jesus  over  human  nature  and  history 
resembles  the  lordship  of  the  sun  over  the  earth ; — the 
world  feels  it  from  centre  to  circumference ;  every  fruit- 
ful field  rejoices  in  it,  and  this  earth  would  be  indeed 
worthless  and  dark  without  it ;  but  we  can  only  make 
guesses  at  the  riddle  of  its  gravitation  and  its  light ;  and 
while  any  child  knows  that  it  is,  the  wisest  can  only 
declare  in  part,  in  very  little  part,  how  it  is.  Yet 
Christian  science  must  evade  no  problem  of  thought, 
and  we  have  no  right  as  Christian  learners  to  stop  think- 
ing in  any  direction  until  we  can  think  no  farther. 
Something  of  the  nature  of  Jesus'  supreme  authority 
we  may  discern.  One  ever-present  type  and  illustration 
of  what  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  is  to  this  universe  we 
have  within  us  in  conscience.  We  are  commanded  by 
another  than  ourselves  within  ourselves.  That  is  con- 
science. It  is  ourself,  yet  not  ourself.  It  is  a  higher 
self.  It  is  something  in  us,  yet  not  of  us.  Philosophers 
cannot  define  it ;  physiologists  always  lose  it  when  they 


TJie  Iinpe7^atives  of  Jesus.  173 

would  find  it  in  lesser  things ;  but  we  know  it.  Almost 
in  infancy  the  child  learns  it, — I  know  not  whether  as  a 
part  of  the  human  fact  of  love  in  which  it  is  born  and 
comes  gradually  to  know  itself,  or  whether  directly  from 
the  inspiration  of  God  himself  w^lio  is  before  and  beneath 
all  our  human  love  and  life ; — but,  be  it  as  a  word  of 
God  taught  through  human  experience,  or  as  a  word  of 
God  whispered  anew  to  each  soul  in  its  own  inner  ear 
for  God's  voice,  certain  it  is  that  conscience  is  the  best 
known  fact  of  human  life.  We  know  something  of 
what  matter  and  body  are,  but  we  know  better  what 
conscience  and  its  laws  of  duty  are.  Conscience  is  the 
first,  and  last,  and  constant  element  of  our  being ;  and 
though  we  deny  it,  we  cannot  destroy  it.  We  must  rise 
and  sleep,  we  must  eat  and  drink,  we  must  work  and  rest, 
wdth  conscience ;  and  when  all  other  things  pass  from  us, 
and  this  world  becomes  to  the  dying  eye  the  shadow 
which  it  is,  through  death,  and  up  the  steps  of  the  judg- 
ment-throne, conscience  shall  go  w^ith  us,  our  souFs  first 
friend,  and  last  judge — our  condemnation  or  our  justifi- 
cation, so  long  as  we  are  living  souls. 

But  the  conscience  of  man,  supreme  over  everything 
else  within  us,  recognizes  its  light  and  Lord  in  the 
Christ  from  God.  That  is  the  true  Light  which  lighteth 
every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world.  Jesus  Christ  is 
the  incarnate  conscience  of  humanity.  His  judgment  is 
true.  All  judgment  is  committed  unto  him.  Conceive 
of  that  other  self  in  you — conscience ; — conceive  of  that 
other  self  in  your  neighbors  and  friends — conscience ; — 
conceive  of  that  higher  self  in  humanity — conscience — 
as  finally  and  fully  embodied  and  incarnate  in  the  Son 


174  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  man.  In  that  conception  of  a  perfect,  incarnate  con- 
science you  have  one  means  of  understanding  the 
supreme  authority  of  Jesus  Christ.  Why  should  not 
God  enter  in  and  possess  once  for  all  the  conscience  of 
man  ?  Jesus  is  the  final  conscience  of  the  world ;  who, 
then,  but  he  shall  be  the  final  judge? 

To  say  this  much,  however,  is  by  no  means  to  com- 
prehend the  Christ  of  these  Gospels  in  his  whole 
authority.  Even  conscience  is  not  all  of  man's  nobility. 
There  is  running  through  this  life  a  law  often  broken, 
often  disappearing,  yet  ever  reappearing,  and  always 
blessing  those  who  see  it  and  trust  themselves  to  it,  even 
the  law  of  love.  Consider  all  love  as  gathered  up  into 
one  pure  soul ;  conceive  of  love  as  concentrating  its 
divinest  forces  in  one  strong  life ;  conceive  of  love  as 
perfectly  embodied  in  one  person  and  finally  incarnate, — 
and  you  have  another  means  of  understanding  the 
nature  of  the  supremacy  of  Jesus  Christ.  His  kingdom 
is  the  reign  of  love.  And  as  conscience  finds  in  love 
the  fulfillment  of  its  law,  so  the  gloiy  of  Sinai  passes  into 
the  glory  of  the  cross. 

Yet  this  is  not  all  of  the  truth  of  Jesus'  person  and 
supremacy  as  we  see  it  reflected  in  these  Gospels.  Such 
are  the  human  types  of  what  he  is ;  conscience  and  love 
are  the  human  realities  by  which  we  may  approach  his 
divinity.  Were  Jesus  only  man's  conscience  in  its  per- 
fect integrity,  were  he  only  man's  power  of  love  in  its 
complete  realization,  he  would  be  worthy  of  our  follow- 
ing as  Master  and  Lord.  But  he  is  more.  The  disci- 
ples evidently  believed  him  to  be  more.  His  work  in 
history  proclaims  him  to  be  more.     We  leave  always 


The  Imperatives  of  Jesiis.  175 

something  out  of  the  impression  of  the  Christ  upon 
man,  and  do  not  find  the  one  solution  of  all  his  mighty 
works,  unless  we  believe  that  Jesus  stood  for  more  than 
our  perfect  conscience,  and  represented  upon  this  earth 
more  than  the  concentrated  and  absolutely  pm^e  love  of 
the  heart  of  our  humanity.  "  I  and  my  Father,"  he 
said,  "  are  one."  He  claimed  to  stand  in  this  world  for 
God.  He  represented  in  his  own  Person  our  God.  He 
was  to  our  human  nature  the  revelation  of  God.  We 
are  to  know  in  him  what  God  w^ho  made  the  world  is ; 
w^hat  God  in  eternity  thinks ;  how  God  beyond  the  stars 
regards  us, — our  lives,  our  sorrows,  our  graves; — as 
Jesus  himself  said,  we  are  to  know  the  Father,  as  w^e  see 
him.  "  Have  I  been  so  long  time  with  you,  and  yet 
hast  thou  not  known  me,  Philip  ?  He  that  hath  seen 
me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

And  yet  the  more  human  thought  which  we  have 
just  entertained  shall  be  still  our  best  help  as  we  worship 
before  this  divine  authority  of  the  person  of  Jesus 
Christ.  For  we  indeed  know  nothing  of  the  metaphy- 
sics of  deity.  But  w^e  may  and  do  have  some  moral 
knowledge  of  God  in  Christ.  We  have  confessed  before 
Christ  that  he  is  the  authority  of  conscience,  he  is  con- 
science itself.  And  now  we  make  haste  to  add,  he  is 
not  our  human  conscience  merely ;  he  is  the  righteous- 
ness of  God  with  man.  He  is  in  his  own  person  the 
express  image  of  God's  eternal  righteousness.  Behold 
the  righteousness  of  God  in  Christ's  life  and  death  ! 
Let  the  angels  look  down  and  adore  it ;  let  the  world 
bow  before  it  and  confess  it !  He  is  God's  righteousness 
condemning  the  sin  of  the  world,  and  submitting  even 


176  The  Reality  of  Faith, 


to  death  because  of  it.  He  is  the  iDcarnate  conscience 
of  God.  And  God  is  love ;  Christ,  then,  is  the  eternal 
love  in  which  the  worlds  were  created  and  the  morning 
stars  rejoiced,  entering  into  our  history  to  be  with  us  to 
its  end,  stooping  to  our  sorrows,  bearing  our  burdens, 
suffering  in  our  stead.  Christ  is  incarnate  love — God's 
own  infinite  and  eternal  love  found  in  fashion  as  a  man, 
touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infirmities. 

Such  is  the  authority  of  Jesus  Christ  over  human 
consciences  and  human  hearts.  He  speaks  from  God  to 
man.  He  is  God  with  man.  He  is  the  revelation  of 
God  in  human  nature.  "  Verily,  verily  I  say  unto  thee. 
We  speak  that  we  do  know,  and  bear  witness  of  that  we 
have  seen.  And  no  man  hath  ascended  into  heaven,  but 
he  that  descended  out  of  heaven,  even  the  Son  of  man 
which  is  in  heaven."     "  Before  Abraham  w^as,  I  am." 

And  what  man  or  woman  of  us  is  there  here  who 
knows  enough  to  contradict  Jesus  Christ  ?  Who  of  us 
has  learned  from  our  own  knowledge  of  nature's  shad- 
ows ever  flitting  before  our  eyes,  or  from  our  own  con- 
sciences mixed  with  sins,  or  from  our  own  hearts  which 
have  not  been  from  infancy  always  unselfish  and  pure  as 
heaven, — who  of  us  has  learned  anything  to  warrant  us 
in  setting  up  our  thought  of  life  against  Jesus'  thought 
of  it  ?  our  desire  for  happiness  against  the  blessings  of 
Jesus'  Gospel  ?  our  plan  for  immortality  against  Jesus' 
revelations  of  the  way  of  eternal  life  ?  Who  of  us  has 
authority  to  contradict  the  Master  of  the  disciples,  the 
Christ  of  the  Gospels,  the  Lord  of  history,  the  Son  of 
the  Father,  the  Creator  of  the  World,  the  Judge  of  all? 

We  may  bring  our  questionings  and  our  doubts  to  him. 


The  Imperatives  of  Jesus.  177 

We  may  lay  our  sciences  before  his  wisdom  of  God. 
We  may  say  in  his  discipleship,  Lord,  we  do  not  under- 
stand ;  the  night  is  dark ;  whither  thou  goest  we  know 
not.  We  may  wait  in  his  presence  for  more  Hght.  If 
the  child  may  run  with  its  childish  questioning  to  an 
earthly  parent,  I  am  sure  we  can  bring  all  our  foolish 
knowledge  of  things  to  his  presence,  and  hope  some  day 
for  the  full  answer  that  shall  make  all  plain.  But  first 
of  all  and  above  all  we  should  bring  obedience.  He 
stands  as  Master  at  the  crossing  of  the  ways  of  our 
lives.  The  decision  of  discipleship  is  the  first  duty 
before  the  divine  authority  of  Jesus  Christ.  My  friends, 
we  need  to  lay  our  souls  bare  of  all  delusions  in  that 
presence.  Christ  does  command  us  in  the  name  of 
God.  He  speaks  to  us  in  the  imperative  mood.  His 
Gospel  is  an  immediate  and  constant  demand  upon 
human  nature.  He  will  not  receive  honor  from  men. 
God  in  heaven  does  not  need  our  worship  ;  and  God 
in  Christ,  and  in  his  work  of  Christianity  on  earth, 
does  not  need  the  patronage  of  our  poor  lives.  Jesus 
Christ  in  his  Church  can  do  without  us  better  than 
we  can  do  without  him  in  his  Church.  God  who 
created  the  worlds  has  made  his  moral  creatures  capa- 
ble of  worshipping  him,  and  he  permits  them  in  view 
of  his  glory  and  perfections  to  enlarge  their  hearts 
in  his  worship;  but  he  needs  our  incense  of  praise 
no  more  than  the  sun  in  the  sky  needs  the  fragrance 
of  the  valleys.  Yet  all  things  that  have  life  must 
rejoice  in  its  shining.  We  need  to  offer  our  hearts  to 
him.  Jesus  Christ  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  repre- 
senting all  his  gracious  Godhead,  goes  before  his  Church, 

12 


178  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

and  is  establishing  on  earth  his  kingdom  in  righteous- 
ness. We  may  own  the  authority  of  divine  righteous- 
ness and  love  incarnate,  if  we  please ;  we  may  find  our 
lives,  as  we  never  found  them  or  can  find  them  in  the 
world,  in  his  kingdom  if  we  will ;  but  God  in  Christ  on 
earth  can  do  without  us  and  accomplish  all  his  work  of 
grace ;  and  God  above  does  not  need  a  single  one  of  us 
in  order  to  fill  his  heaven  full  of  happy  love.  It  is  all 
condascension  and  free  grace  on  his  part  to  open  the 
door  for  such  as  we,  and  to  give  us  room  among  the  just. 
And  do  we  not  all  of  us  need  to  be  most  thoroughly 
commanded  by  something  higher  and  better  than  our- 
selves ?  We  go  hither  and  thither,  we  make  no  perma- 
nent gain  of  life,  we  fall  from  our  own  possibilities,  and 
lose  worth  and  heart,  unless  we  are  commanded  to  our 
inmost  souls  by  something  greater  and  better  than  we ; 
unless  in  some  single  and  supreme  devotion  we  step  forth 
like  princes  to  our  high  calling,  and  pursue  life  with 
the  steady  tread  of  those  who  go  forth  to  conquer.  Oh ! 
we  must  first  be  commanded,  body,  and  soul,  and  spirit, 
in  order  that  we  may  reign  upon  thrones  forever.  We 
must  obey  that  we  may  become  kingly.  We  are  all 
alike  in  this  first  necessity  of  our  finite  being ;  men  and 
women,  all  of  us,  are  but  as  the  brutes  that  perish,  until 
we  see  something  that  commands  us,  and  we  arise,  and 
follow  it  like  a  star.  You,  young  men  and  women,  be 
sure  you  cannot  find  your  lives  until  you  lose  them  in 
something  that  is  as  a  worship  to  your  souls.  Idle,  idle, 
is  it  for  any  of  us  to  seek  life  in  aimlessness  and  disobedi- 
ence to  the  heavenly  vision.  Life  is  nothing  without 
the  power  and  purpose  of  conscience  and   love  in  it. 


The  Imperatives  of  Jesus.  179 

We  are  no  better  than  the  leaves  that  fade  and  are  blown 
about  by  the  winds  of  heaven,  unless  we  gain  our  own 
souls  through  obedience  to  something  worthy  of  all  our 
minds  and  all  our  hearts  and  all  our  strength.  Behold ! 
the  man  !  Behold  your  King  !  Behold  God  manifest 
in  the  flesh  !  Hear  his  commanding  word  !  His  bless- 
ing for  you  and  me  is  in  the  imperative  duty  of  disciple- 
ship.     Leave  all,  and  follow  me. 


XIII. 

METHODS  OF  LIVING. 

"  Enir  f)c  sai'b  unto  t^cm,  §t  an  from  lmtni\) ;  1  am  from  aiobt :  ^t 
an  r)£  lf)ts  iuorlJj;  1  am  not  of  t^is  toorlb."— John  viii.  23. 

There  are  three  methods  of  living  in  this  world ;  we 
may  live  from  beneath,  or  from  within  ourselves,  or 
from  above.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  men  and  women 
are  divided  into  three  distinct  classes  according  to  these 
three  definite  methods  of  life.  We  none  of  us  do  live 
consistently  in  this  world  after  one  single  method  of 
life.  There  has  been  but  one  self-consistent  man  in 
human  history.  Jesus'  life  followed  but  one  method 
throughout.  His  character,  like  the  coat  which  the 
soldiers  divided,  was  without  seam,  woven  from  the  top 
throughout. 

But  no  other  man  is  either  wholly  good,  or  consist- 
ently bad.  What  human  character  among  men  has  ever 
crystallized  according  to  one  principle  and  law,  without 
break  or  blemish  ?  God's  goodness  makes  it  hard  even 
for  the  wicked  man  to  be  consistently  and  always  earthly, 
sensual,  and  devilish.  And  the  sin  of  the  world  is  dust 
and  stain  upon  the  garments  of  those  who  would  journey 
as  pilgrims  and  strangers  here  into  that  better  country. 
"  Not  as  though  I  had  already  attained,  either  were  already 
perfect/'  is  the  confession  even  of  the  inspired  and  great- 
hearted apostle.  Hence  I  do  not  invite  you  to  look  in 
180 


Methods  of  Livmg.  i8i 

this  confused  world  for  examples  formed  in  thorough 
consistency  with  either  of  these  three  methods  of  life. 
I  do  ask  you  to  look  upon  life  as  it  lies  before  us, 
and  to  discover  in  it  these  three  distinct  principles  or 
laws  of  the  formation  or  crystallization  of  human  char- 
acters; to  consider  whether  there  are  really  any  other 
methods  by  which  we  may  live  than  just  these  three ; 
and  then  studying  these  methods  as  thoroughly  as  you 
can  in  their  vital  truths,  forces,  and  practical  eiFects,  to 
make  conscious  and  deliberate  choice  between  them. 

I  need  only  distinguish,  however,  the  first  mentioned 
method  of  life  from  beneath.  We  can  easily  recognize 
it,  or  any  temptation  in  our  own  thoughts  from  its  bot- 
tomless pit.  The  world  has  received  Christian  education 
enough  to  lead  it  publicly  and  before  men  at  least  to 
repudiate  the  method  of  the  devil  in  life;  and  even 
though  many  still  cheat  and  steal,  and  bear  false  witness, 
and  live  for  the  gratification  of  their  own  lusts,  they  will 
not  in  the  nominally  Christian  world  be  so  bold  as  to 
follow  openly  their  evil  gods,  build  temples  like  the 
heathen  to  the  idols  of  their  own  passions,  or  willingly 
acknowlalge  that  in  their  grasping,  intemperance,  vices, 
and  defalcations,  they  are  doing  the  deeds  of  their  father 
the  devil.  Christianity  has,  at  least,  dethroned  Satan 
from  open  public  recognition,  if  it  has  not  banished  the 
demons  of  private  life. 

The  second  method  of  life  just  mentioned  is  a  very 
common  one,  and  it  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes.  It  contains 
much  truth,  and  leads  to  many  honorable  works.  It  is 
the  effort  to  live  as  a  human  being  may  best  live  in  the 
powei^  of  his  own  reason,  and  out  of  the  motives  of  his 


1 82  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

own  heart.  Not  a  few  desire  honestly  and  honorably  to 
make  the  most  of  themselves  and  their  circumstances, 
but  without  seeking  or  finding  any  help  from  above. 
Religion  seems  to  them  something  distant  and  dark  ;  they 
seek  to  answer  by  their  own  efforts  their  o^vn  prayer  of 
life,  and  to  create,  by  such  wisdom  as  they  can  master, 
their  own  providences  in  the  world.  Young  men  see 
characters  which  have  rounded  out  into  much  human 
robustness  and  grace  without  a  confessed  religious  faith ; 
and  they  think  that  a  method  of  life  sufficient  for  a 
strong  manhood  may  be  found  in  their  own  reasons  and 
wills  without  religious  consecration,  or  the  prayer  of 
faith  ever  at  the  heart  of  life.  The  motive-powers  for 
life  they  would  find,  according  to  this  human  method  of 
it,  not  in  any  hopes  or  fears  of  the  hereafter,  nor  even 
in  any  lofty  faiths  in  things  unseen  and  eternal ;  but  in 
their  own  admiration  for  whatsoever  things  are  right 
and  of  good  report,  in  their  own  manly  love,  as  they 
expect  to  maintain  it,  of  the  good  and  the  true.  I  do 
not  say  that  all  such  persons  consciously  and  thought- 
fiilly  reduce  thus  their  lives  to  their  real  principle  or 
method,  for  one  great  trouble  with  us  all  is  that  we  are 
too  content  to  drift  along  with  the  general  current  of  life 
around  us,  and  do  not  determine  thoughtfully  the  course 
we  are  following.  This  method,  however,  whether  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  pursued,  is  a  common  method 
of  life  in  Christian  lands.  And  let  us  cheerfully  admit 
that  it  is  good  so  far  as  it  reaches.  Life  committed  in  a 
general  way  to  truth  and  goodness  may  drift  in  happy 
directions.  Persons  whose  idea  of  life  is  to  develop 
themselves  to  the  utmost  of  their  own  powers  and  oppor- 


Methods  of  Living.  183 

tunities,  to  make  the  most  and  the  best  of  their  lives, 
often  reach  admirable  results.  Our  Christian  faith  need 
not  make  us  color-blind  to  natural  virtues.  A  thoroughly 
human  life  may  be  a  ripe,  rich  thing.  We  like  some- 
times the  flavor  of  it  better  than  the  harsh  and  crabbed 
virtue  which  may  be  the  first-fruits  of  some  life  of  deeper 
conscientiousness  in  its  early  exposure  in  a  climate  of 
stern  religious  beliefs.  Only  the  former  may  already 
have  reached  its  full,  earthly  ripeness,  while  the  latter  is 
the  still  bitter  bud  of  some  sweet,  heavenly  fruition. 

Having  acknowledged  thus  the  fair  fruits  which  we 
find  growing  sometimes  upon  this  human,  non-religious 
principle  of  living,  if  we  turn  now  to  the  New  Testa- 
ment, we  meet  a  difiiculty  in  our  text.  The  Scripture 
apparently  fails  to  recognize  this  second,  intermediate 
method  of  living.  Yet  Jasus  certainly  must  have  looked 
out  upon  life  with  as  quick  an  appreciation  of  anything 
honest  and  fair  in  it  as  any  of  us  can  ever  feel,  and  was 
he  not  always  ready  to  see  the  good  in  men  even  where 
we  are  not  quick  to  see  it  ?  He  found  the  man  worth 
saving  even  in  the  publican  and  sinner.  But  when  he 
lays  bare  the  principles  of  character ;  when  he  reduces 
human  lives  to  their  ultimate  methods ;  he  does  not  say 
there  are  three  ways  in  which  men  live, — the  way  of  sin 
from  beneath,  the  way  of  goodness  growing  from  within 
and  blossoming  by  its  own  virtue  into  perfection, — and 
also  tbe  way  of  religion,  or  of  goodness  shining  into  us 
and  through  us  from  heaven.  Jesus  leaves  out  of  his 
view  of  life  altogether  the  middle  way.  He  said,  as  he 
taught  in  the  temple,  "  Whither  I  go,  ye  cannot  come," 
and  when  the  Jews  wondered  what  he  meant,  he  pointed 


184  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

out  with  instantaneous  decision  two  radically  different 
courses  of  life  which,  because  opposite,  could  never  lead 
those  who  followed  them  into  the  same  place.  "And  he 
said  unto  them,  Ye  are  from  beneath;  I  am  from 
above :  ye  are  of  this  world ;  I  am  not  of  this  world." 
Perhaps,  however,  it  may  be  said,  Jesus  in  this  text 
meant  simply  to  oppose  the  falsehood  which  was  drag- 
ging down  the  life  of  the  Jews;  and  in  some  other 
passage  he  may  have  recognized  and  not  condemned  a 
method  of  life  which  certainly  would  not  yield  to  the 
lower  motives  even  though  it  does  not  profess  to  rise  to 
the  higher.  But  where  in  Jesus'  conversation  will  you 
find  recognized  more  than  two  fundamental  principles 
and  tendencies  of  life, — the  one  of  this  world  and  tend- 
ing tow^ards  that  which  is  beneath ;  and  the  other,  like 
his  own  higher  life,  not  of  this  world,  and  rising  toward 
that  which  is  above  ?  The  last  written  of  the  Apostolic 
epistles,  w^hich  reveal  the  mind  of  Jesus  as  it  was  reflected 
in  that  disciple  who  leaned  upon  his  bosom,  almost 
startle  us  by  the  vividness  of  the  constant  contrast  which 
they  present  between  two  methods  and  two  states  of  life, — 
the  one  begotten  of  God,  and  confessing  the  Christ ;  the 
other  having  the  spirit  of  anti-Christ,  and  not  of  God  ; — 
the  one  is  light,  love,  and  truth ;  the  other  is  death, 
darkness,  and  a  lie. 

You  see,  then,  the  difficulty.  When  we  close  the 
Bible  and  look  out  candidly  upon  life,  we  observe  a  great 
deal  of  lovableness  and  goodness  in  the  w^orld  growing 
apparently  out  of  men's  own  consciences  and  hearts,  \\\\\\- 
out  any  special  religious  vitality  in  it.  We  cannot  say, 
indeed,  that  there  may  not  be  some  unconfessed  secret  of 


Methods  of  Living.  185 

God  in  it.  I  believe  there  is  something  from  God  in  all 
human  goodness.  We  observe,  however,  a  way  of  living 
which  we  must  recognize  as  a  natural,  human,  manner 
of  life,  a  life  proceeding  from  man's  own  best  nature, 
which  method  we  do  not  find  admitted  when  we  open 
again  the  New  Testament.  One  of  tsvo  consequences, 
therefore,  must  be  true  :  either  human  life  is  broader  than 
the  Gospel  and  cannot  be  wholly  contained  in  it,  or  else 
the  Gospel  goes  deeper  than  we  have  looked,  and  judges 
human  nature,  not  by  its  present  appearance  or  imme- 
diate wants,  but  by  its  real  necessities  and  its  final  con- 
ditions. 

This  brings  us,  then,  I  submit,  to  a  fair  question  which 
should  not  be  evaded  by  any  of  us; — which  of  these 
statements  just  put  forth  is  true  ?  The  Bible  says  there 
are  two  ways  of  life — one  from  God  and  unto  God,  the 
other  of  this  world  and  unto  death.  Human  experience 
says  there  is  also  a  third  possible  way — a  mid-way  of 
life,  neither  diabolical  nor  saintly — neither  down  in  the 
depths  of  sin,  nor  up  on  some  height  with  God ; — and 
this  midway  of  life  seems  to  some  to  be  the  nearest  and 
the  easiest  to  follow  in  our  present  ignorance  and  scep- 
ticisms. I  think  I  have  stated  the  matter  fairly  and 
fully,  and  as  it  exists  in  the  minds  of  many.  They  take 
the  intermediate  life ;  or,  at  least,  without  any  choice,  or 
much  thought,  they  find  themselves  in  this  midway  of 
life,  and  are  content  for  the  present  to  follow  it. 

I  wish  to  make  the  following  observations  upon 
this  fact  that  tAvo  ways  of  life  only  are  marked  out  in 
the  Gospel,  while  a  third  way  seems  to  be  found  in 
human  experience.     We  should  remember  that  Jesus  in 


1 86  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

his  conversation  with  men  was  in  the  habit  of  going 
beyond  all  that  is  temporary  and  transient  in  human 
nature  and  conduct,  and  that  his  judgments  of  men  and 
their  ways  of  conducting  themselves  have  reference  to 
the  radical  principles  and  final  issues  of  things.  He  has 
told  us  that  he  did  not  come  to  judge.  "  And  yet  if  I 
judge,  my  judgment  is  true.'^  Jesus  judges  life  as  one 
looking  back  upon  it  from  beyond  the  years ;  he  speaks 
to  human  nature  as  one  seeing  into  the  eternal  principles 
and  necessities  of  things.  When  Jesus,  therefore,  dis- 
tinguishes between  two  opposite  methods  of  life  only, 
while  human  experience  shows  us  a  third  way  along 
which  men  are  walking  comfortably,  and,  so  far  as  we 
can  follow  them,  often  safely,  without  slipping  down  to 
the  bottom,  or  climbing  either  any  difficult  height ; — 
then  the  question  arises  whether  life  can  always  go  on, 
whether  it  can  go  on  much  farther  than  we  can  now  see, 
in  this  half-way  fashion?  The  question  between  the 
Gospel  with  its  two  ways,  and  human  nature  with  its 
third  way,  reduces  itself  to  this :  Is  not  this  interme- 
diate way — this  middle  method  between  heaven  above 
and  hell  below — a  path  which  we  should  reasonably 
expect  must  come  somewhere  to  a  break,  when  he  who 
would  follow  it  further  will  be  compelled  to  scale  the 
height,  or  plunge  into  the  abyss  ?  Is  this  method  of  life 
at  best  but  a  temporary  or  provisional  method  ?  And 
if  this  be  so,  can  it  now  be  justified  as  a  necessary  or 
reasonable  expedient  for  a  life  ? 

A  man  may  say  :  "  I  admit  that  I  must  probably  at 
some  time  take  God  into  my  account  of  life,  and  look 
eternity  in  the  face ;  sometime,  I  suppose,  I  shall  reach 


Methods  of  Living.  187 

a  break  in  my  path  where  I  must  stop  short  and  go  up 
or  down ;  but  I  have  not  gone  so  far  as  tliat  yet ;  I  have 
the  ever  present  actuality  of  this  world  to  deal  w^ith 
now ; — that  meets  me  in  my  office,  and  knocks  at  my 
door,  and  compels  me  to  work  for  my  living ;  I  must 
do  the  best  I  can  with  what  is  at  hand;  when  these 
unseen  things  shall  come  in  sight,  when  God  shall  be  a 
visible  fact  above  my  horizon,  then  I  shall  also  take 
thought  of  God  and  eternity.  MeauAvhile  I  accept  the 
middle  way,  as  you  call  it,  as  a  present  reasonable  expe- 
dient, or  provisional  working-plan  of  my  life." 

Putting,  accordingly,  all  other  considerations  for  the 
moment  one  side,  let  us  take  this  method  on  its  own 
grounds,  and  consider  well  whether  it  is  the  best  temporaiy, 
or  even  a  necessary  provisional  method  for  a  man's  life. 
It  is  a  great  presumption  at  the  outset  against  it  that  it  is 
an  expedient,  and  cannot  possibly  be  the  full,  final  method 
of  an  immortal  soul.  We  certainly  want,  if  we  can,  to 
strike  now  into  a  way  of  life  which  we  can  follow  across 
all  earthly  events  on  and  on  forever.  The  Epicurean 
who  says.  Let  us  eat  and  drink  for  to-morrow  we  die,  is, 
at  least,  consistent  in  his  self-stultification.  He  proceeds 
consistently  to  rob  himself  of  soul  and  spirit,  and  to  be 
nothing  to-day  but  a  satiated  body  which  shall  die 
to-morrow.  But  to  say  to  Satan,  Get  thee  behind  me  ! 
and  not  at  the  same  moment  to  pray  with  the  Christ,  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven,  puts  a  man  at  this  disad- 
vantage :  he  would  cast  out  evil,  and  makes  a  struggle  for 
his  own  soul,  while  he  does  not  bring  in  any  higher  poAver 
to  his  life,  and  leaves  out  that  hope  of  immortality  and 
that  love  of  the  divinest,  things  which  are  the  inspiration 


1 88  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  a  soul  in  its  struggle  for  liberty.  If  it  were  necessary 
for  us  to  do  this,  and  simply  with  main  force  to  hold  on 
to  our  own  bare  conviction  of  truth  and  right  without 
any  sense  of  spiritual  deathlessness  in  our  hearts,  and 
without  any  assurance  of  faith  in  the  living  God,  or 
prayer  for  victory  over  the  world  to  one  who  can  help 
us  overcome  it ; — then,  indeed,  this  provisional  method, 
this  temporary  expedient  of  self-preservation  from  evil, 
would  be  our  duty,  and  alas !  the  whole  duty  of  man. 
But  it  certainly  will  be  a  very  serious  disadvantage  to 
your  plan  of  life,  if  that  plan  must  be  held  subject  to 
death,  and  you  expect  to  have  to  drop  it  entirely  in  the 
grave.  As  thinking,  acting  beings  we  want  to  plan  our 
lives  for  ages,  not  for  years.  A  purpose  over  which 
death  is  lord,  is  not  a  purpose  of  life  sufficient  for  the 
spirit  of  a  man.  And  who  of  us  expects  to  live  one 
single  day  after  death  without  finding  ourselves  obliged 
to  take  God,  and  the  whole  kingdom  of  righteousness, 
into  our  account  of  life  ?  "  Do  you  expect  to  be  here 
next  year,"  some  one,  it  is  said,  asked  of  Rufus  Choate 
towards  the  end  of  his  life.  "  Yes,"  replied  the  great 
advocate,  "  I  expect  to  be  here  next  year,  and  a  hundred 
years,  and  a  thousand  years  hence."  Such  is  tlie  expect- 
ation of  the  spirit  of  a  man.  "  The  earnest  expectation 
of  the  creation  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of 
God."  Let  the  purpose  of  life  then  equal  the  expectation 
of  man^s  spirit.  That  is  not  a  sufficient  method  of  a  life 
which  does  not  reach  forward  at  least  a  hundred,  a 
thousand  years  hence.  Put  the  dilemma  in  all  its  sharp- 
ness. If  I  am  nothing  but  an  animal  which  perishes, 
then  I  have  no  use  for  religion.     Why  should  a  brute 


Methods  of  Living.  189 

take  counsel  of  a  dream  of  spirit — of  our  strange  dreams 
of  things  glorious  or  terrinc,  after  it  shall  be  nothing 
but  dust?  But  could  a  mere  brute  have  such  human 
dreams  of  the  spirit  ?  If  in  any  moments  of  my  present 
existence  I  am  conscious  of  a  certain  sense  of  spiritual 
deathlessness,  am  I  not  already  living  in  inner  contact 
with  unseen  things,  which  some  day  may  be  the  visible 
outward  reality  of  God  round  about  me?  It  is  only 
then  a  question  of  time  for  me  when  I  must  have  to  do 
with  the  revealed  God ;  when  I  must  have  everything 
to  do  with  religion.  I  cannot  live  fifty,  a  hundred,  a 
thousand  years  hence  still  drifting  on  in  unconcern  about 
the  greatest  and  final  realities  of  this  universe. 

Let  me  not  seek  in  the  name  of  the  Man  of  Truth  to 
lead  any  one  of  you  a  step  in  life  beyond  the  truth  upon 
which  you  may  stand.  Some  will  Avillingly  admit  that 
it  is  a  comparative  disadvantage  not  to  be  able  to  take 
up  their  lives  every  morning  afresh  in  a  religious  faith, 
and  even  wish  they  could  believe  as  their  mothers  have 
trusted  God,  and  in  that  faith  been  strong  and  glad ; — 
but  they  say,  "  I  must  build  my  life  up  upon  known 
facts,  and  of  truths  which  experience  can  substantiate." 
So  be  it.  Give  me  no  dream  of  fountains  when  my  soul 
is  athirst  for  the  living  God  !  Let  me  not  see  painted 
over  the  altar  of  the  Church  a  picture  of  a  feast  of  angels, 
when  I  hunger  for  the  bread  of  life !  Give  me  no  make- 
believes  for  life  !  Give  me  positive  facts  to  build  into 
the  substantial  arch  of  a  life !  But  if  I  can  find  the  key- 
stone which  shall  make  all  complete,  let  me  not  be  con- 
tent to  leave  it  untouched,  not  put  in  its  place  in  my  life, 
because  life  may  be  carried  so  high  without  it,  and  the 


IQO  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

temporary  scaffolding  may  hold  all  iu  place  for  the 
present.  The  only  question  for  us  is  whether  religion, 
whether  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  does  not  bring  to  our  hands 
the  facts  which  are  needed  to  make  life  entire  ?  If  so, 
we  ought  at  once  to  use  them.  Is  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  the  key-stone  which  completes  all  and 
secures  all,  and  that  with  no  temporary  scaffolding  of 
our  construction,  but  with  the  righteousness  of  God  ? 

It  might  be  enough  for  my  reasoning  at  this  point 
simply  to  ask  those  of  you  who  have  been  trying  to  live 
out  your  own  lives  honorably  in  this  w^orld  without 
religion,  to  search  deeply  the  living  Scriptures  of  your 
own  hearts,  and  to  study  the  fresh  daily  Scriptures  too 
of  providence  in  this  world,  and  to  discover  for  your- 
selves whether  there  are  not  larger,  higher,  and  diviner 
facts  in  present  things  than  you  can  put  under  a  micro- 
sco23e,  or  bring  within  the  field  of  a  telescope,  or  under- 
stand in  any  conceivable  earthly  mechanics  of  things. 
I  might  ask  you  to  read  me  the  secret  of  God  in  the 
grass  beneath  your  feet,  or  to  interpret  the  laws  of  reason 
in  the  primal  motions  of  the  heavens  above.  Nay,  I 
might  ask  you  to  explain  your  own  thought  in  which,  as 
in  a  larger  element,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  are  con- 
tained. The  present  fact  of  the  living  God — where  in 
this  round  of  nature  is  it  not  pressed  in  upon  our 
reason  ?  in  what  passing  phenomenon  before  our  eyes  is 
not  the  omnipresent  mystery  of  God  very  near  us? 
Feel  your  own  pulse-beatings,  and  believe  in  the  living 
God!  You  cannot  explain  whence  came  that  pulsing 
life  of  yours  unless  you  do. 

And  besides  these  present  premonitions  of  God  in  the 


Methods  of  Living,  191 

soul,  and  these  spiritual  workings  and  prophecies  of 
things  amid  which  we  live  every  day,  there  are  other 
facts  which  one  should  take  into  his  puq30se  of  life,  if 
he  is  to  have  a  complete  method  of  living.  There  is  a 
whole  order  and  range  of  divine  facts  in  the  world 
which  we  call  Christianity.  They  are  as  positive  facts 
of  history  as  the  Rocky  Mountains  are  facts  of  geogra- 
phy. And  one  might  as  reasonably  attempt  to  engineer 
a  railroad  across  a  continent  to  the  Golden  Gate  without 
taking  into  account  the  Rocky  Mountains,  as  seek  to 
stretch  a  purpose  across  this  life  without  taking  into  his 
plan  the  whole  range  of  exalted  facts  which  we  call 
Christianity. 

I  suppose  if  a  man  had  begun  in  Mexico  and  trav- 
elled northwards  for  hundreds  of  miles  following  the 
mountain  chain,  he  could  not  then  easily  be  convinced 
by  any  philosopher  reasoning  in  his  study,  that  the  high 
passes  through  which  his  path  had  wound,  and  the 
mighty  peaks  up  to  which  he  had  gazed,  were  only 
stories  of  the  travellers,  or  battlements  of  clouds  mis- 
taken for  realities.  And  I  suppose  if  any  one  of  us  had 
been  born  in  that  same  year  when  Jesus  was  born  on 
earth,  and  had  lived  on  and  on  from  age  to  age,  and  had 
followed  for  centuries  along  its  winding  way  the  progress 
of  the  Gospel ;  had  seen  one  after  another  the  characters 
it  has  elevated  into  heavenly  light,  and  observed  the  one 
constant  law  of  formation  which  runs  on  from  the 
beginning  throughout  this  new  epoch  of  the  world's 
history  ; — such  a,  traveller  down  through  Christian  his- 
tory could  not  easily  be  persuaded  by  any  fine  reasoning 
that  Christianity  in  its  continuous   order   and   all  its 


192  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

massive  facts  is  a  myth — a  vision  of  Paul — a  dream  of 
John — a  cloud-land  of  mistaken  faith  !  Christianity  in 
its  great  ranges  of  truth  and  its  continuous  exaltation  of 
humanity,  is  the  fact  with  which  the  modern  world  and 
our  life  have  to  deal.  Christianity  is  a  divine  archi- 
tecture of  history  which  cannot  be  explained  merely  as 
a  work  of  men's  hands. 

From  all  these  mighty  facts  let  me  now  specify  but 
these  two.  The  Person  of  Christ  is  the  central  fact. 
Pilate  did  not  know  what  to  do  with  it — that  fact  of  the 
Lord  before  him — and  he  turned  coward  under  the  eye 
of  the  King  of  men,  and  would  wash  his  hands  of  his 
blood.  The  world  cannot  evade  its  responsibility  before 
the  divine  fact  of  Jesus'  personality.  He  looks  calmly 
down  upon  all  the  generations,  and  each  must  crucify 
him  afresh,  or  confess  him.  He  stands  before  the  judg- 
ment-throne of  every  soul  to  whom  his  Gospel  is 
preached,  and  the  final  question  of  our  lives — whether 
we  will  or  no — becomes  this  sole  and  single  question  ; — 
What  shall  I  do  witli  this  Jesus  which  is  called  Christ  ? 

The  other  fact,  of  which  I  speak,  is  the  power  of  the 
Holy  Ghost  in  the  lives  of  men.  The  Spirit  of  God 
has  always  been  with  the  world,  but  since  Christ  finished 
his  work  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  with  men,  and  in  the 
lives  of  men,  as  never  before  so  intimately,  so  power- 
fully, and  in  such  helpfulness  and  grace.  "  Oh  !  now," 
some  one  says,  "you  are  in  the  air  again  with  your 
sermon,  and  not  standing  on  the  firm  ground  of  facts." 
Possibly  we  are  in  the  air,  with  such  faith,  above  the 
levels  of  the  street  at  least,  and  the  din  of  the  world. 
But  we  have  not  lost  firm  footing  upon  the  facts  of 


Methods  of  Living,  193 

experience  when  we  say,  We  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
We  are  simply  standing  npon  a  high  yet  firm  range  of 
facts  which  run  straight  through  Christian  history, 
when  we  rest  upon  the  truth  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  There 
are  experiences  of  men  and  women  called  to  be  saints 
which  are  radiant  with  light  from  above.  There  is  in 
our  lives  a  power  which  is  greater  than  we.  I  envy  not 
the  heart  nor  the  intellect  of  that  man  who  has  never 
liad  more  in  his  own  life  and  in  his  own  thought  than 
he  can  explain  by  saying,  "  That  is  my  own  work ;  that 
is  my  own  creation ;  I  devised  for  myself  that  aspira- 
tion ;  I  made  that  instinctive  prayer ;  I  manufactured 
that  great  idea ;  I  painted  upon  my  own  soul  that  vision 
of  better  things ;  I  have  received  only  what  I  have 
given  myself;  I  have  never  seen  or  followed  one  ray  of 
light  that  fell  upon  my  path  from  above."  Christian 
experience  is  full  of  the  witness  of  Spirit  to  spirit — the 
witness  which  the  apostles  recognized  of  the  Spirit  of 
God  to  our  spirits  that  we  are  the  sons  of  God.  The 
Catholic  Church  universal,  from  the  ancient  times  until 
now,  confesses :  "  We  believe  in  the  Holy  Ghost ; " — and 
if  in  this  faith  we  have  been  confessing  to  an  unreality 
and  a  shadow,  then  equally  the  confession  of  the  Church 
to  duty,  to  purity,  to  moral  heroism,  to  righteousness,  to 
its  charities  and  its  homes,  is  a  delusion  and  a  dream ; 
for  all  these  triumphs  of  godliness  in  the  world  are  the 
signs  and  the  evidences,  the  issues  and  results,  of  this 
its  first  and  supreme  confession :  We  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord,  and  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

We  must  allow  that  a  provisional  way  of  living  is 
justifiable  only  upon  the  supposition  that  it  is  necessary, 

13 


194  ^^^  Reality  of  Faith, 

or  that  we  can  do  no  better.  One  may  live  as  well  as  he 
can  in  a  tent,  provided  there  is  no  material  at  hand  of 
which  he  may  build  a  house.  One  may  camp  out  under 
a  merely  moral  theory  of  life,  provided  a  religious  home 
be  an  impossibility.  But  there  are  materials  sound  and 
ample  for  a  Christian  home  for  life.  There  are  divine 
facts  enough  all  about  us  in  this  world  to  whose  shelter 
we  can  go,  and  within  which  we  may  live  better,  happier 
lives.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  a  home  of  souls. 
There  are  far  too  many  men  and  women  camping  out 
under  insufficient  ideas  of  life  just  outside  our  churches — 
and  all  the  while  the  door  is  open, — all  tilings  are  now 
ready,  and  yet  there  is  room  ! 

I  want  to  leave  in  your  thought  one  or  two  of  the 
many  considerations  which  combine  to  show  the  com- 
pleteness of  the  Christian  method  of  living,  and  the 
comparative  incompleteness  of  even  the  best  method  of 
life  which  is  not  clearly  and  consciously  Christian. 

The  Christian  method  is  life  from  above.  Christ 
finds  the  child  that  was  lost,  and  sets  him  in  the  midst 
of  the  divine  Fatherhood.  Christ's  Spirit  received  in 
the  world  is  the  power  of  the  divine  love  beating  at  the 
heart  of  all  earthly  want  and  sorrow  and  sin.  The 
Christian  life,  the  life  formed  after  this  Cliristian  method, 
is  the  open,  large,  out-of-door  life  of  the  soul ;  the  life 
not  shut  in  to  itself,  but  looking  out  upon  all  realities, 
and  open  to  the  whole  day  of  God.  ^^Not  of  our- 
selves ; " — so  the  first  Christians  said,  and  so  we  con- 
fess ; — "  not  of  ourselves ;  it  is  the  gift  of  God." 

And,  finally,  to  leave  all  else  unsaid,  this  Christlike 
method  of  life  shows  its  completeness,  I  might  say  its 


Methods  of  Living.  195 

perfect  naturalness,  in  this  respect  that  it  does  tend  more 
and  more  to  harmonize  everything  in  us  and  around  us ; 
and  the  growing  harmony  of  life  is  the  sure  proof  tliat 
the  method  cannot  be  wrong.  Let  any  man  try  to  live 
in  the  principle  and  power  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  will 
find  what? — struggles  often  with  temptation?  strife 
sometimes  hard  with  himself  and  the  world?  Yes, 
surely,  if  he  would  live  as  an  honest  Christian  man. 
But  he  will  know  that  he  does  not  toil  as  a  slave  in  this 
world  which  holds  its  creatures  as  the  Roman  galleys 
did  the  captive  slaves  upon  the  benches ;  he  knows  that 
in  all  the  struggle  of  his  life  he  is  the  Lord's  freeman, 
and  when  his  course  shall  be  over  he  looks  for  the 
crown  of  life  which  the  Lord  shall  give.  He  will  find, 
too,  a  peace  such  as  the  world  cannot  give  at  the  centre 
of  all  life's  storm,  a  peace  like  the  rest  of  heaven  around 
all  this  world's  ambitions  and  cares.  Not  growing  dis- 
cord, which  betrays  a  method  that  is  wrong,  but  growing 
peace,  which  shows  that  the  method  of  life  is  right,  is 
the  world's  experience  of  Christianity. 

If  we  then  would  live  aright,  we  must  seek  to  be  in 
right  relations  or  harmony  with  all  truths,  all  facts,  and 
all  realities  in  this  world  or  the  world  to  come.  Life  is 
imperfect  unless  it  be  thus  a  perfect  reconciliation.  Life, 
however  noble,  useful,  or  beautiful,  is  manifestly  incom- 
plete, unless  it  seeks  for  and  finds  at  last  perfect  recon- 
ciliation with  earth  and  heaven,  and  all  things  which  are 
therein.  We  must  be  at  one  with  ourselves ;  at  one 
with  nature  and  all  its  laws ;  at  one  with  all  spirits  of 
good ;  at  one  with  all  celestial  dominions  and  powers ; 
in  a  single  word  which  includes  all,  we  must  be  at  one 


196  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

with  God,  before  we  can  begin  to  be  complete,  before 
ever  we  can  gain  the  royal,  true,  eternal  life. 

This  is  the  life  which  Jesus  Christ  brings  within  the 
reach  of  the  child's  prayer.  And  every  man  must 
receive  it  as  a  little  child  from  God.  And  now  is  the 
accepted  time,  and  now  is  the  day  of  salvation. 


XIV. 

THE  MISSIONARY  MOTIVE. 

"4For  tf)t  lobe  of  Christ  wnstramtti^  us."— 2  Cor.  v.  14. 

Thus  the  great  missionary  apostle  takes  us  into  the 
secret  of  his  enthusiasm  in  spreading  the  glad  tidings 
abroad  among  the  Gentiles.  The  love  of  Christ  beats 
always  at  the  heart  of  true  missionary  life. 

The  epistle  in  which  this  missionary  motive  is 
announced  bears  the  stamp  of  St.  PauFs  manhood.  He 
was  at  that  time  throwing  himself  into  the  great  warfare 
of  his  life.  He  was  in  the  thick  of  the  storm  of  his 
grand  battle  for  the  law  of  liberty  in  the  grace  of  Christ. 
The  churches  were  filled  with  misrepresentations  of  his 
work ;  he  saw  suspicion  in  the  eyes  of  those  whom  he 
would  lead  to  greater  Christian  victories ;  and  while  he 
was  uplifting  the  sign  of  the  Cross  in  triumph  among 
the  Gentiles,  some  reactionary  spirits,  stirred  up  by  men 
with  letters  from  the  brethren  in  Jerusalem,  were  denying 
his  right  to  preach  as  an  apostle  even  among  churches  in 
which  he  had  been  called  of  the  Lord  to  minister. 

In  this  chapter  Paul  rises  above  all  this  clamor  and 
gainsaying,  beyond  the  din  of  party  disputings,  up  to 
the  pure  source  and  inspiration  of  his  missionary  enthu- 
siasm ; — ''  For  the  love  of  Clirist  constraineth  us."  He 
who  but  yesterday  was  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews,  now 
judges  that  ^'oue  died  for  all,   therefore  all  died;" — 

197 


198  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

the  atonement  is  for  the  whole  world,  and  the  Gentiles 
should  know  what  a  blessing  for  all  nations  God  has 
given  in  his  Son; — ^^and  he  died  for  all,  that  they 
which  live  should  no  longer  live  unto  themselves,  but 
unto  him  who  for  their  sakes  died  and  rose  again." 
Men  everywhere  are  "no  longer  to  live  unto  them- 
selves;" we  shall  have  a  new  world  and  a  happier, 
when  this  Gospel  of  the  new  law  of  life  shall  be 
preached  far  and  wide,  and  all  nations  shall  be  taught 
that  henceforth  men  are  "  no  longer  to  live  unto  them- 
selves, but  unto  him  who  for  their  sakes  died  and  rose 
again."  This  large,  Christian  grace  is  too  great  a  boon 
from  heaven  for  the  disci^^les  in  Judea  to  be  content  to 
keep  it  to  themselves ;  this  blessing  is  too  ample  and 
universal  in  its  design  for  them  to  be  willing  to  see  it 
confined  within  their  own  churches ;  they  must  speak 
everywhere  the  things  which  they  have  seen  and  know ; 
it  is  plain  as  noon-day  that  God  means  his  gift  in  Christ 
for  the  whole  world.  Let  all  men  have  it ;  behold,  now 
is  the  acceptable  time,  now  is  the  day  of  salvation  for 
the  Gentiles !  So  to  the  chief  apostle  "  everything  is 
urgent ; "  and  in  journey ings  often  he  makes  haste  from 
city  to  city,  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ  for  all 
men,  and  feeling  that  a  woe  is  upon  him  if  he  preaches 
not  the  Gospel.  At  Corinth,  at  Athens,  at  Rome,  in  all 
the  centres  of  Pagan  life,  he  sees,  beneath  the  glitter  and 
the  gayety,  the  hollowness  and  wretchedness  of  a  world 
whose  strength  is  eaten  out  by  its  own  lusts.  The  fear- 
ful picture  still  remains  in  the  epistle  to  the  Romans 
which  the  missionary  apostle  drew  of  the  uncleanness 
and  unnatural  woes  of  the  world  dead  in  sin  through 


The  Missionary  Motive,  199 

which  he  hastened  to  carry  the  life-giving  Gospel  of  the 
Lord.  This  world  in  all  its  sinfulness  and  suffering  he 
beholds,  also,  in  the  transfiguring  light  of  the  Christian's 
faith.  For  Christ  has  died  for  all ;  a  new  law  of  life, 
having  in  it  the  power  of  a  new  creation,  has  been  made 
known  in  Christ ;  "  Wherefore  we  henceforth  know  no 
man  after  the  flesh."  The  missionary  apostle  can  look 
upon  the  most  sunken  Corinthian  to  whom  he  preaches 
Christ  in  the  glorifying  hope  of  the  spiritual  renewal  of 
human  nature  through  the  Gospel ;  he  need  know  the 
most  abandoned  man  no  longer  after  his  fallen  nature 
and  grossness  only,  but  after  a  higher  possibility  of  the 
Spirit.  "  Even  though  we  have  known  Christ  after  the 
flesh,  yet  now  we  know  him  so  no  more."  All  men, 
even  the  blessed  jNlaster  himself,  are  to  be  known  by  his 
apostles  henceforth  after  the  Spirit.  The  man  Jesus  has 
vanished  from  earth ;  but  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  is  for  all  places  and  for  all  men.  There  are 
points  in  the  midst  of  the  thick  pagan  darkness  begin- 
ning to  shine  with  this  light  from  heaven ;  the  whole 
world,  to  which  the  Gospel  is  to  be  preached,  shall  in 
time  be  renewed  by  its  power.  "  Therefore  if  any  man 
be  in  Christ,  he  is  a  new  creature :  old  things  are  passed 
away ;  behold,  all  things  are  become  new."  The  Chris- 
tian is  a  new  man  in  a  new  world.  He  is  a  changed 
man  changing  the  world  around  him.  In  the  light  and 
hope  of  his  faith  all  things  are  become  new. 

Still  the  missionary  of  the  cross  lifts  up  his  eyes  to 
behold  this  vision  of  apostolic  faith ; — old  things  are 
passed  away :  behold,  all  things  are  become  new,  to  the 
glad  faith  of  the  Christian  hero  who  is  constrained  in 


2CXD  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

the  midst  of  heathen  darkness  and  want  to  preach  the 
Gospel  of  renewing  grace  by  the  love  of  Christ.  Inspi- 
ration enough  for  him  in  his  devoted  work  is  faith's 
happy  vision  of  the  new  creation  !  He  needs  not  to  be 
pressed  to  his  self-denials  by  fear  lest  God's  Christian 
providence  towards  his  lost  children  shall  finally  fail  of 
all  gracious  opportunity  unless  he  can  preach  Christ 
instantly  to  millions  who  are  dying  without  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel ;  he  is  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ 
to  find  his  life  in  doing  daily  the  Master's  work  among 
the  poor,  the  ignorant,  and  the  forsaken,  for  whom 
Christ  lived  and  died. 

There  was  a  theological  opinion  prevalent  among  the 
first  Christians  which  might  liave  cooled,  we  should 
think,  their  missionary  ardor.  From  some  things  Paul 
had  said,  quite  incidentally  perhaps,  to  the  Thessalonians, 
many  were  led  to  entertain  the  thought  that  the  Lord 
might  come  in  their  own  generation.  It  is  not  improba- 
ble that  Paul  at  first  may  have  shared  this  not  unnatural 
expectation.  Although  he  may  have  thought  this  opin- 
ion concerning  the  Lord's  speedy  coming  a  not  improba- 
ble opinion,  he  does  not  seem,  however,  at  any  time  to 
have  taught  it  as  a  dogma  of  his  faith.  It  was  not 
regarded  as  a  thing  incredible  among  some  of  his  con- 
verts that  at  the  break  of  any  morning  there  might  be 
heard  across  the  valleys  and  over  the  sea  the  sound  of 
the  last  trumpet ;  or  in  the  peace  of  any  evening  the 
form  of  the  Son  of  man  might  be  seen  coming  upon  the 
clouds  of  heaven  in  his  glory.  This  expectation  seems 
to  have  misled  some  believers  into  idle  waiting  and  use- 
less lives.     And  if  the  Lord  might  be  expected  to  come 


The  Missionary  Motive.  201 

at  any  moment,  what  need  was  there,  or  reason,  for  far- 
reaching  missionary  endeavors  and  continued  self-denials? 
Surely  the  mass  of  paganism  could  not  be  leavened  in  a 
generation  by  their  hands  !  But  although  the  missionary 
Apostle  himself  anight  think  often  and  entertain  his 
own  watchful  opinions  concerning  the  probable  times 
and  seasons  of  the  Lord's  coming,  it  is  certain  that  no 
views  which  at  any  time  he  may  have  held  upon  that 
doubtful  matter,  and  no  logical  inferences  which  might 
be  draw^n  by  others  from  such  opinions  and  speculations, 
ever  for  one  moment  disturbed  his  knowledge  of  the 
commission  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  all  the  world  which 
the  disciples  had  received  directly  from  the  ascending 
Lord.  The  love  of  Christ  constrained  him  to  preach 
the  Gospel  from  Jerusalem  even  unto  Illyricum.  If,  as 
many  thought  not  impossible,  the  Lord  should  come  to- 
day or  to-morrow,  he  should  find  his  faithful  servant 
doing  his  work  and  seeking  for  the  lost. 

Thus  from  the  beginning  the  missionary  motive  has 
risen  above  perplexing  questions  and  doubtful  disputa- 
tions in  theology.  It  has  not  been  lowered  or  dimmed 
by  changes  which  in  the  past  fifty  years  have  come  over 
our  prevalent  theology.  It  is  now,  for  example,  a  gen- 
eral opinion  in  evangelical  circles  that  God  will  apply  the 
work  of  Christ  for  the  salvation  of  any  heathen  who 
may  have  lived  up  to  the  light  of  nature.  The  modified 
Calvinism  of  New  England  recoils  from  the  extreme 
belief  that  only  the  small  fraction  of  the  human  race  to 
whom  Christ  has  actually  been  preached  can  possibly  be 
saved.  The  Christian  theologian  hopes  to  greet  Socrates 
among  the  humble-minded  searchers  after  truth  upon 


202  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

those  fiual  heights  of  heavenly  wisdom.  There  is, 
indeed,  uo  explicit  warrant  for  this  belief  in  the  Scrip- 
tures. Peter's  exclamation  of  surprise,  when  Cornelius 
had  sent  to  him  to  learn  of  Christ,  has  no  immediate 
reference  to  our  question  what  shall  become  of  the 
heathen  whom  no  providence  leads  to  learn  of  Christ 
from  any  apostle,  at  least  in  this  world.  Like  that 
other  general  opinion  among  modern  believers  that  those 
who  die  in  early  infancy  shall  be  graciously  saved,  this 
belief  that  in  some  gracious  way  God  may  accept  many 
unconverted  heathen,  is  an  extra-Scriptural  belief.  It 
is  not  un-Scriptural ;  but  it  is  extra-Biblical.  Jesus 
never  said  one  explicit  word  upon  these  subjects  about 
which  we  ask  many  questions.  Nevertheless,  Christians 
generally  have  come  to  cherish  such  gracious  hopes 
because  they  seem  to  spring  up  spontaneously  in  the 
heart  of  faith  from  our  Christian  conception  of  the 
character  of  God.  As  teachings  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
in  the  Christian  consciousness  of  the  Church  they  com- 
mend themselves  to  believers,  and  are  not  found  con- 
trary to  the  Scriptures.  But  do  these  commonly- 
received  views  of  God's  larger,  though  ^' uncovenanted" 
mercies,  stand  in  the  w^ay  of  the  missionary  activity  of 
the  churches  among  which  they  prevail?  It  might 
easily  be  shown  that  logically  they  must  restrain  mis- 
sionary effort.  And  it  has  not  been  among  us  an 
altogether  unheard  of  thing  for  men  to  justify  their 
apathy  in  this  cause  by  the  reflection  that  it  might  be  a 
mistaken  kindness  for  us  to  bring  the  heathen  to  the 
knowledge  and  judgment  of  the  Gospel.  Why  should 
we  take  infinite  pains  to  preach  the  doctrines  of  grace  to 


The  Missionary  Motive.  203 

people  who  can  be  saved  by  the  light  of  nature  and 
conscience  ? 

The  fact,  however,  that  any  belief  may  be  apparently 
either  stimulating,  or  repressive,  is  very  secondary  and 
minor  evidence  when  we  are  seeking  earnestly  for  the 
whole  truth.  Thus  it  might  greatly  stimulate  Sunday- 
school  work  if  it  could  be  proclaimed  that  all  persons 
who  shall  not  be  converted  before  they  are  twelve  years 
old  shall  have  no  further  opportunity  of  grace.  Possibly 
it  might  give  the  evangelist  great  success  if  he  could 
stand  in  a  pulpit  and  say,  "All  who  do  not  come  to  Jesus 
before  the  clock  shall  finish  striking  twelve,  shall  have 
no  further  day  of  grace.'^  Possibly  it  might  inspire  the 
Church  with  great  missionary  zeal  if  it  were  revealed  to 
us  that  all  to  whom  we  cannot  carry  the  Gospel  have  no 
other  means  of  salvation.  But  also  so  tremendous  a 
responsibility  might  prove  too  strong  a  stimulus  for  faith 
to  endure  ;  so  terrible  a  fear  might  not  merely  "  cut  the 
nerve  of  missions,"  but  paralyze  the  heart  of  Christian 
love.  An  impossible  task  might  crush  the  spirit  of  our 
missionaries ;  and  the  heavenly  Father  in  the  word  of 
his  grace  has  never  laid  upon  the  messengers  of  the  glad 
tidings  a  burden  which  human  hearts  could  not  bear. 

It  would  be,  on  our  part,  a  foolish  fear,  and  a  grievous 
suspicion,  to  imagine  that  a  growing  charity  of  faith 
towards  God  by  which  most  Calvinistic  divines  have 
been  restrained  from  judging  that  all  heathen  without 
knowledo^e  of  Christ  must  necessarily  be  lost,  has 
rendered  them  indiiferent  to  the  missionary  spirit  of 
Christianity,  or  has  tended  to  diminish  their  contributions 
for  that  most  Christlike  work  to  which  any  heart  capable 


204  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  responding  to  the  love  of  Christ  is  gladly  constrained. 
Their  extra-Scriptural,  but  not  un-Christian  opinion  con- 
cerning unrevealed  possibilities  of  grace  for  the  heathen 
would  certainly  be  a  right  thing  in  the  wrong  place  if  it 
should  be  found  for  a  moment  in  the  way  of  their  mis- 
sionary work.  These  alleviations  of  the  theology  of 
New  England,  which  honorable  men  still  with  us  have 
happily  wrought  for  us,  have  not  apparently  cooled  the 
ardor  or  enervated  the  energy  of  our  churches  in  their 
work  for  missions.  Those  who  have  succeeded  in 
modifying  Calvinism  in  the  direction  of  a  larger  faith  in 
a  universal  atonement  have  not  failed  in  greater  works 
of  charity  on  account  of  their  broader  conceptions  of  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ.  Those  who  would  modify  Calvin- 
ism still  further  in  the  direction  of  a  larger  faith  in  the 
universal  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Spirit  are  not  likely 
to  lose  their  love  for  souls  in  their  clearer  trust  that  God 
has  in  his  design  one  universal  system  of  Christian  grace 
for  the  whole  world.  Their  missionary  motive  rises 
rather  than  falls  with  their  growing  faith  that  our  work 
is  a  part  of  the  whole  dispensation  of  grace,  and  where 
we  cannot  go  in  his  name,  beyond  all  possible  eifort  of 
ours,  Christ  may  still  have  ways  unrevealed  to  us  of 
sending  his  Spirit  to  all  souls,  of  whatever  age  or  land, 
before  their  final  decision  of  character  and  judgment. 
And  the  Christian  Church,  believing  in  God's  love  in 
Christ  for  the  world,  and  receiving  its  commission  of  the 
Gospel  from  the  Lord  who  died  for  all,  while  hospitable 
to  any  suggestion  wliich  the  fatlicrs  may  have  made,  or 
which  may  still  be  drawn  from  better  methods  of  study- 
ing God's  Word  and  learning  the  mind  of  Christ  concern- 


The  Missionary  Motive.  205 

iug  any  of  the  dark  problems  of  its  theology,  will  hold 
ever  sacred  its  missionary  heritage ;  and  under  the  con- 
straining love  of  Christ  it  is  pressing  forward  to  greater 
works  of  faith,  and  shall  rejoice  in  triumphs  more 
marvellous  of  redeeming  grace. 

The  zeal  of  the  chief  apostle  in  his  missionary  preach- 
ing was  kept  up  to  white  heat  not  only  by  his  inward 
fervor  of  spirit,  but  also  by  the  pressure  upon  him  of  the 
great  opportunity  for  the  Gospel  wherever  he  went.  He 
could  hope  in  his  life-time  to  seize  upon  the  chief  cities, 
the  commanding  commercial  centres,  for  Christ.  The 
straight  ways  of  the  Roman  empire  ran  in  every  direction 
before  the  ambassadors  of  reconciliation.  The  constrain- 
ing love  and  the  great  opportunity  worked  together  in 
causing  his  soul  to  burn  w^ith  zeal.  What,  then,  would 
have  been  his  appeal  to  the  churches,  if  he  could  have 
stood  upon  the  platform  of  the  American  Board  at  any 
of  its  recent  meetings,  and  spoken  to  us  in  the  midst  of 
our  world-wide  opportunity  ?  God  is  giving  us  in  our 
day  a  grander  opportunity  for  the  Gospel  than  the  first 
missionary  apostle  ever  dreamed  of  seeing.  A  world 
greater  than  the  Roman  empire  lies  in  ever}"  direction 
open  to  our  approach.  Powers  of  the  earth  and  the  air 
unknown  to  the  ancients  wait  to  speed  the  messages  of 
Christian  faith.  The  Church  has  now  the  opportunity 
of  the  centuries ; — shall  it  not  have  the  answering  love  ? 

I  must  here  crowd  large  considerations  into  a  small 
space.  Think  of  the  distance  to  which  the  hand  of 
Christian  love  may  now  reach.  St.  Paul  with  his  letters 
and  journey ings  often  could  reach  at  furthest  only  a  few 
hundred  miles  around  him ;  but  now  Christian  benevo- 


2o6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

leuce  holds  the  whole  world  in  its  hand.  The  Christian 
merchant  can  go  to  his  counting-room  and  send  forth  a 
check  that  may  wing  a  benevolent  thought  of  his  heart 
around  the  world.  It  may  light  in  a  college  in  Turkey, 
from  which  men  have  been  sent  forth  with  a  Christian 
education  to  positions  of  responsibility  and  power ;  it  may 
hover  over  a  school  for  girls  in  the  East,  where  woman 
is  waiting  for  the  deliverance  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Son 
of  Mary ;  it  may  enter  as  a  ray  of  light  the  dark  con- 
tinent ;  it  may  help  swell  the  stream  of  Christian  influ- 
ence for  the  regeneration  of  India ;  it  may  travel  on  its 
mission  of  mercy  along  the  crowded  ways  of  the  Celestial 
Empire ;  it  may  meet  with  Christ's  hope  for  the  future 
the  awakening  mind  of  Japan ;  it  may  fly  across  the 
ocean  and  reach  the  shores  of  the  isles  of  the  sea ;  it  may 
follow  the  lines  of  new  railways — a  messenger  of  peace — 
through  the  stormy  heart  of  Mexico ;  it  may  visit  prisons 
and  hospitals,  carry  bread  to  the  starving  and  succour  to 
the  suffering,  and  return  from  its  world-wide  flight  to 
his  own  door,  a  prayer  and  a  blessing  for  him  and  for  all 
Christians  who,  gladly  constrained  by  the  love  of  Christ, 
have  sent  forth  under  the  whole  heavens  the  angels  of 
their  charity  to  bring  laws  and  liberty,  to  leave  righteous- 
ness, joy,  and  peace  in  the  Holy  Ghost  among  all  peoples 
and  nations  for  whom  Christ  died  and  rose  ao^ain. 

Think,  too,  how  little  it  costs  to  transform  your  gifts 
through  the  devotion  of  others  into  actual  work  done 
among  the  heathen.  It  is  said  that  it  costs  this  govern- 
ment some  fifteen  cents  to  deposit  every  dollar  of  its 
appropriations  among  the  Indians;  it  costs  you — how 
much  ? — for  every  dollar  which  you  can  take  from  your 


The  Missionary  Motive,  207 

business  ?  But,  besides  three  cents  on  a  dollar  spent  in 
scattering  missionary  information,  it  will  cost  you  just 
three  cents  through  the  American  Board  to  deposit  in 
Christian  work  at  the  other  end  of  the  world  any  dollar 
which  the  love  of  the  Master  may  constrain  you  to  drop 
into  our  contribution-box  for  foreign  missions.  And 
how  wonderfully  the  Lord  multiplies  the  rich  man's  gifts 
by  the  hands  of  his  self-denying  servants  who  in  the 
heroism  of  modern  Christianity  are  spreading  the  glad 
tidings  in  every  land !  Besides  the  world-wide  reach 
even  of  the  feeblest  hand  of  Christian  benevolence  throu2:h 
our  great  missionary  societies,  and  the  indefinite  multipli- 
cation, through  the  self-denials  of  devoted  Avorkers,  of  the 
rich  man's  gifts,  let  me  remind  you  further  of  the  promise 
now  resting  upon  missionary  fields.  Hardly  seventy-five 
years  ago  three  students  at  Andover  asked  the  Associa- 
tion of  Congregational  ministers  whether  they  considered 
their  thoughts  on  foreign  missions  visionary  and  imprac- 
ticable. Now,  as  the  results  of  the  foreign  missionary 
societies  of  the  United  States  alone,  nearly  five  thousand 
mission  stations  and  sub-stations,  about  six  thousand 
laborers,  over  two  hundred  thousand  enrolled  com- 
municants, and  some  fourteen  hundred  schools  are  the 
answer  substantial  and  glorious  upon  the  white  mission- 
ary field  of  the  world  to  the  visionary  thought  of  Christian 
love  in  the  early  years  of  the  present  century.  Now  that 
the  beginnings  have  been  made,  now  that  the  years  of 
patient  waiting  without  a  convert  have  been  lived  through 
in  more  than  one  station,  now  that  the  doors  of  over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  languages  and  dialects  have  been 
opened  for  the  entrance  of  God's  word,  now  that  the 


2o8  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

vision  of  the  beginning  of  the  century  has  become  the 
sacred  trust  of  the  Church,  what  wonders  of  redeeming 
love  may  we  not  expect  to  see  before  this  missionary 
century  shall  close  ?  Lift  up  your  eyes,  and  behold  ! 
The  bow  of  a  divine  promise  rests  upon  the  ends  of  the 
earth  ;  and  everywhere  Christian  laborers  may  go  forth, 
they  walk  under  the  bright  arch  which  spans  the  whole 
world  with  the  promise  of  redemption  ! 

Think  also  of  the  new  demands  made  upon  Christian 
love  by  these  enlarging  opportunities  of  missionary  con- 
quest. The  Lord  admits  us  into  the  high  responsibilities 
of  the  missionary  century.  Doubtless  He  might  do  this 
work  without  us.  God  might  send  legions  of  his  angels 
to  minister  to  the  Christ  in  his  work  of  redeeming  all 
nations ;  celestial  choirs  might  sing  the  glad  tidings  on 
other  hills  than  those  of  Bethlehem  ;  but  God  chooses  to 
lay  restraint  upon  the  promptings  of  his  own  benevolence 
so  far  as  to  wait  for  our  offerings  of  our  lives,  and  to 
take  us  into  the  gracious  responsibilities  of  his  kingdom. 
He  would  train  men  for  eternal  life  in  his  lowly  ser\dce 
in  this  world.  In  some  larger  purpose  of  good  for  all 
men  than  we  may  fully  know  He  waits  for  his  people  to 
scatter  over  the  whole  world  the  seeds  which  His  Spirit 
shall  make  fruitful.  To  our  hands,  for  the  largest,  final 
good,  He  commits,  in  the  patience  of  his  love,  the  w^ork 
of  reclaiming  the  fields  laid  waste  by  man's  sin.  And 
now  the  urgent  opportunities,  the  evident  and  increasing 
success  of  the  Gospel  in  lands  which  but  yesterday  were 
shut  up  in  their  own  darkness,  do  tax  the  nerve  of  our 
Christianity.  Have  we  courage  and  perseverance  enough 
for  the  great  battle  ?    Have  we  reserve  strength  enough 


The  Missionary  Motive.  209 


at  home  for  the  victories  which  the  heroes  upon  the 
advance  line,  the  sentinels  at  the  front,  send  us  back 
word  from  post  after  post  of  missionary  vigilance  are 
within  our  reach,  by  the  grace  of  God,  with  united  effort 
on  our  part,  easy  to  be  won  ?  Are  we  ready  to  follow 
the  Lord's  command  ?  to  bring  up  our  reserves  of  money 
and  of  men  ?  to  sound  a  forward  movement  along  the 
whole  line  ?  Or  must  we  recall  our  brave  soldiers  from 
the  front,  from  their  prospect  of  glorious  advances  for 
Christ's  hosts,  in  order  that  they  may  help  us  put  down 
the  attack  of  scepticism,  denials,  worldliness,  back-bitings, 
theological  enmities  and  disputings  in  our  rear?  ^ly 
brethren,  the  danger  to  Christian  missions  in  this  day  of 
the  Son  of  man  will  not  come  through  the  breaking  down 
of  denominational  fences,  or  the  removal  of  any  eccle- 
siastical fortifications  between  Christians ;  nor  will  it 
come  through  liberty  of  thought,  or  from  our  willingness 
to  open  the  gates  on  every  side  to  Christian  scholarship ; — 
the  danger  threatens  from  an  altogether  different  direc- 
tion ;  the  danger  to  Christian  missions  comes  from 
worldliness  within  the  Church,  from  small  ambitions 
and  petty  purposes  among  defenders  of  the  faith,  from 
our  blindness  to  the  Scriptures  of  God's  daily  providence 
which  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  now  writing  large  in  the 
thought  and  upon  the  wants  of  the  world.  Before  the 
great  responsibilities  of  this  grand  missionary  age  the 
Lord  Christ  requires  of  us  a  return  to  simpler,  sincerer 
Biblical  faiths,  and  a  new  baptism  of  our  own  hearts  in 
the  Spirit  of  Christ, — and  then  a  pressing  forward  with 
one  mind  and  with  all  our  might  to  the  conquest  of  the 
world  by  the  Cross  of  Christ ! 


2IO  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

I  will  not  dwell  at  length  upon  the  indirect  and  inci- 
dental benefits  of  foreign  missions.  They  have  not 
been  thus  far  a  bad  business  investment  for  this  country, 
if  we  take  no  higher  view  of  them,  by  their  indirect  but 
powerful  influence  in  opening  new  channels  of  trade  and 
in  bringing  reclaimed  peoples  into  the  commerce  of  the 
civilized  world.  American  agricultural  implements,  for 
example,  have  followed  the  landing  of  our  missionaries 
upon  barbarous  shores,  and  American  manufacturers  have 
reaped  rewards  from  the  self-denials  of  our  foreign  mis- 
sionaries. Were  they  only  the  pioneers  of  civilization  and 
commerce,  a  country  which  can  squander  millions  on 
"  River  and  Harbor  Improvements  '^  might  well  afford 
to  cover  with  its  flag,  too  often  held  by  the  red  hand  of 
rapacity,  that  fearless  band  of  missionaries  who  are  bring- 
ing American  justice  and  liberty  to  races  of  the  down- 
trodden and  the  oppressed.  A  vigorous  missionary 
policy  is  for  us  the  best  foreign  policy.  It  is  a  policy 
of  peaceable  conquest  of  the  world  for  Christ. 

I  will  not,  however,  plead  in  a  Christian  pulpit  as  our 
warrant  for  patient  continuance  in  this  good  work  any 
of  these  low^er,  incidental,  and  commercial  advantages  of 
foreign  missions.  The  venerable  President  Hopkins,  in 
an  address  made  at  a  recent  meeting  of  the  American 
Board  in  Portland,  struck  the  key-note,  above  all  con- 
troversy, which  should  echo  and  resound  through  all 
our  churches,  when  he  found  in  Christian  love  the 
inspiration  and  the  poAver  of  this  missionary  age.  To 
the  music  of  this  high  motive  all  our  benevolences  are 
marching  on.  No  other  call  will  be  needed  by  any  heart 
capable  of  thrilling  to  the  touch  of  Christ's  Spirit,  and 


The  Missionary  Motive.  2 1 1 

expanding  with  a  Saviour's  love  for  a  lost  world.  God, 
in  his  wonder-working  providence,  is  blotting  out 
upon  the  map  of  the  world  the  line  of  demarcation 
between  home  and  foreign  missions.  We  can  hardly  tell 
now  where  the  one  begins  and  the  other  ends.  The 
world  is  one  world  now  as  it  never  has  been  before. 
Christian  workers  almost  everywhere  live  now  within 
telegraphic  communication  with  one  another.  Work 
done  now  for  foreign  lands  comes  quickly  home  again 
along  streams  of  immigration  to  our  own  shores.  Seeds 
sown  on  far  Western  prairies  shall  erelong  bring  forth 
fruit  whose  seed  in  turn  shall  be  wafted  across  oceans  to 
bring  forth  more  fruit  in  old  civilizations.  The  distant 
is  brought  near,  the  whole  world  is  at  our  door,  and 
everywhere  the  Lord  is  coming  !  He  was  not  the  Mes- 
siah of  Judea  only ;  He  was  not  the  Lord  of  the  Roman 
Empire  only ;  He  was  not  the  Creator  of  the  nations  of 
modern  Europe  merely  ;  lo  !  the  wilderness  of  the  new 
world  became  a  garden  through  his  word ;  He  is  not  the 
Saviour  of  America  only ;  behold !  the  isles  of  the  sea 
wait  for  his  coming,  and  the  ends  of  the  earth  are  given 
him  for  his  inheritance  ! 

Let  the  love  of  Christ — that  supreme  missionary 
motive — constrain  us  who  stand  in  full  view  of  the  world- 
empire  of  the  Cross  to  redoubled  faith  and  zeal,  to  larger 
contributions  worthy  of  Christianity,  and  to  sympathies 
which  know  no  bounds  of  place  or  sect,  but  are  broad  as 
the  manifest  destiny  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  In  the 
consecration,  prayers,  and  charity  of  all  true  believers 
let  the  Spirit  of  Christianity  go  forth  along  all  the 
thoroughfares  of  commerce,  and  among  the  sinful  and 


212  The  Reality  of  Faith. 


suifering  populations  of  the  world,  bringing  a  new  law 
of  life,  and  a  brighter  hope  for  the  Avorld  to  come, — even 
as  the  Master  walked  of  old  teaching  the  words  of  eternal 
life,  and  with  a  healing  virtue  in  his  garments  for  the 
slightest  touch  of  want. 


XV. 

THE  PERMANENT  ELEMENTS  OF  FAITH. 

"  jfox  ii  t})at  b3!)icf)  is  Jjonc  afeaD  feoas  slorious,  muc^  mon  t^at  iutut 
nmaindi)  is  %loxious." — 2  Cor.  iii.  11. 

Our  lives  are  full  of  fever  and  restlessness.  In  truth 
is  quietness,  and  God  only  never  changes.  It  seems  as 
though  God  had  left  all  the  thoughts  and  works  of  man 
in  fluctuation  and  variableness  in  order  that  we  may  not 
find  anything  abiding  and  always  the  same  to  us,  except 
God  himself.  It  is  not  simply  that  we  ourselves  are 
passing,  and  our  works  are  but  for  a  day ;  the  lights 
which  men  follow  as  their  guiding  stars  change  before 
the  eyes  of  the  successive  generations,  and  many  things 
which  once  were  held  to  be  sacred  and  everlasting  are 
the  glory  which  passes  from  another  age.  We  might 
bear  better  the  changes  which  must  come  in  our  outward 
lives,  if  it  were  not  for  the  changes  which  shake  even 
those  beliefs  which  have  been  life's  foundations.  Those 
sacred  things  which  men  would  regard  as  most  perma- 
nent are  not  always  to  the  children  as  they  were  to  the 
fathers ;  are  not  to  us  ourselves,  as  experience  broadens 
and  we  know  the  thoughts  of  men,  what  they  were  in 
other  days.  Sometimes  our  hearts  grow  weary  of  all 
change,  and  we  wish  at  least  that  in  the  firmament  of  man's 
faith  the  stars  would  stand  still.  But  over  all  the  heavens 
falls  the  shadow  of  turning,  save  upon  God  himself. 

213 


2  14  T^f^^  Reality  of  Faith. 

None  of  us  have  ever  seen  greater  changes,  shaking 
the  foundations  of  things  more  sacred,  than  that  Chris- 
tian Apostle  had  seen  who  was  born  a  Jew  at  Tarsus. 
The  law  given  by  Moses  seemed  to  him  permanent  as 
the  work  of  God.  The  sun  might  have  been  darkened, 
but  the  glory  of  Israel  was  forever.  Yet  a  few  short 
years  only  had  gone,  and  he  is  thinking  of  that  glory 
as  something  which  is  done  away.  That  most  sacred  of 
religious  forms  is  also  of  this  earth  earthy,  and  it  must 
be  changed.  God  only  is  unchangeable.  It  would 
have  been  most  natural,  had  the  Apostle  stood  look- 
ing back  with  regretful  gaze  upon  the  glory  which  was 
passing  away.  He  might  have  wondered  whether  man's 
mind  and  heart  can  ever  find  anything  upon  which  to 
be  at  rest.  Where,  we  ask,  in  view  of  changes  hurry- 
ing by  us,  shall  we  stop  ?  where  shall  we  take  our  stand  ? 
There,  we  say,  we  will  draw  the  line — but  the  next 
wave  washes  our  line  away.  We  say.  Here  we  will  take 
our  stand ; — but  the  tide  stops  not  at  our  feet.  The 
Hebrew  Christian  Apostle  who  had  seen  a  whole  vener- 
able religion  take  in  his  lifetime  its  place  among  things 
mutable  and  passing,  might  well  have  grown  weary  of 
soul  and  wished  that  he  was  at  rest  with  his  fathers ; 
but  though  in  his  day  the  religion  of  the  fathers  was 
changing,  and  the  holy  temple  itself  trembled  on  the 
verge  of  its  destruction,  he  seems  to  have  gained  a  faith 
which  soared  with  a  cheerful  song  above  these  passing 
things.  He  forgets  to  mourn  over  the  glory  which 
passeth  away  as  his  eye  gladdens  with  the  sight  of  a 
glory  which  excelleth.  He  assures  us  that  all  those 
things  which  men  hoped  might  abide,  and  which  were 


TJie  Permane7it  Elements  of  Faith.      215 

glorious,  however  excellent,  fail  in  this  one  respect  that 
they  are  transient  and  perishable ;  but  there  is  a  glory 
which  excelleth — there  arc  the  more  glorious  things 
which  shall  remain. 

Above  and  beyond  all  these  passing  forms  of  religion 
and  of  belief  there  are  the  things  which  remain.  In  all 
religion,  in  all  faith,  there  are  transient  forms,  and  there 
are  permanent  elements. 

In  saying  this,  I  have  said  not  much  to  help  any  one 
who  may  be  tossed  up  and  down  in  his  own  thoughts, 
not  knowing  what  to  think  or  believe.  Yet  I  have  said 
something ;  and  this,  though  little,  is  important.  It  is 
something  to  trust  that  there  are  permanent  realities  of 
things  even  though  we  may  not  yet  be  sure  what  they 
are.  It  is  something  to  believe  in  our  hearts  that  there 
are  abiding  elements  of  truth  and  faith  even  though  all 
things  may  seem  flitting  like  shadows  before  our  eyes. 

It  is  utter  loss  of  heart,  it  is  coldness  of  mind  like 
death,  not  to  believe  in  eternal  truth — to  hold  no  more 
the  first  living  faith  of  nature  that  there  are  things  true 
and  real  and  everlasting.  If  any  man  is  in  danger  of 
this  utter  loss  of  faith,  I  know  of  but  one  remedy  for 
him,  and  that  is  for  him  to  go  at  once  and  do  some 
truth,  until  in  doing  it  he  believes  in  it.  We,  however, 
believe  that  there  are,  that  there  must  be,  some  perma- 
nent elements  of  faith,  some  things  above  all  changes  of 
the  thoughts  of  men,  which  are  real  and  abiding.  The 
practical  question  for  us  is,  how  shall  we  distinguish 
that  which  is  passing  from  that  which  remains  and  is 
more  glorious  ? 

I  wish  to  indicate,  briefly,  several  successive  steps  by 


2i6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

which  it  seems  to  me  a  candid  mind  may  come  to  some 
certainty  in  the  substance  of  things  to  be  believed  and 
loved.  We  reach  assurance  in  faith  only  as  we  find  for 
ourselves,  first,  the  way  up  to  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
supreme  authority  of  faith  ;  and  then,  secondly,  find  for 
ourselves  the  way  down  from  Jesus  Christ  to  the  present 
hour,  and  the  questions  of  our  own  times.  Accordingly, 
let  me  enumerate  several  way-marks  in  this  path  up  to 
Jesus  Christ,  and  then  down  from  Jesus  Christ  to  any 
question  upon  our  minds  or  hearts. 

First,  we  may  approach  the  Divine  Man  through 
the  constitutional  wants  and  capacities  of  our  own 
souls.  Our  own  souls  are  prophecies  of  something 
diviner  than  ourselves.  We  have  capacities  for  more 
than  now  appears.  The  Christian  fathers  used  to  say 
that  the  human  soul  is  organized  for  God.  Our  own 
hearts  are  such  echoes  of  divinity  that  we  should  listen 
in  expectation  for  the  Voice  from  above  to  speak  again. 
It  would  be  nothing  contrary  to  human  nature,  if  at  any 
time  God  should  manifest  himself  in  the  flesh.  Given 
on  this  earth  such  a  being  as  the  first  man,  Adam,  and 
it  is  in  order  then  to  expect  the  coming  of  the  second 
Man,  which  is  the  Lord  from  heaven.  The  Christ, 
in  other  words,  is  the  only  perfect  fulfillment  of  human 
nature  ;  and  we  do  need  him. 

A  second  way-mark  in  the  ascent  to  the  Christ,  is 
aiforded  by  the  fact  that  the  world  seems,  in  many 
respects,  to  have  been  made  for  a  Christ  to  come.  The 
apparent  direction  of  the  creation  from  the  beginning 
has  been  ever  to  something  higher  and  diviner.  There 
has  been  a  constant  ascent  of  things  towards  the  Spirit 


The  Perma7ie7it  Elements  of  Faith.      217 

and  God.  The  course  of  nature  has  been  one  uniform 
prophecy  of  something  better  and  more  spiritual.  At 
first,  so  far  as  we  know,  there  was  matter  and  motion  ; 
then  worlds  and  life ;  then  instinct,  and  life  rising  to 
self-consciousness ;  then  reasoning,  and  thoughts  of  the 
spirit  searching  beyond  the  stars ; — and  what  wonder 
would  it  be,  if,  looking  up  and  along  this  great  ascent 
of  nature  man-wards  and  God-wards,  we  should  see, 
standing  at  the  end  of  it  all.  One  in  the  form  of  man, 
yet  having  the  glory  of  the  Father's  Person  —  One  in 
whom  nature  itself,  which  came  from  God,  returns  at  last 
to  God — One  in  whom  all  things  are  made  complete — 
One  who  finishes  the  whole  creation,  as,  in  his  own 
person,  he  binds  it  to  the  throne  of  God.  Without 
some  Christ  the  creation  would  be  unfinished, — a  broken 
shaft  without  its  capital — an  image  of  divinity  without 
its  head  and  crown. 

Starting  thus  from  our  own  souls,  and  taught  what  we 
may  look  for  and  dream  of,  at  least,  by  the  tendencies  of 
nature,  we  strike  next  into  the  way  of  history,  and  in 
ancient  times  we  come  upon  increasing  signs  of  a  leading 
and  gathering  of  events  according  to  some  higher  law. 
I  mean  to  say  that  if,  for  instance,  a  man  will  take  the 
books  of  Closes,  and  compare  them  with  the  records  of 
the  contemporaneous  traditions  and  beliefs  of  the  world, 
he  will  see  signs  in  them  of  the  working  of  some  higher, 
spiritual  power  according  to  some  supernatural  law. 
There  is  evidence  that  the  Bible  begins  to  take  form  and 
shape,  and  to  grow,  according  to  some  higher  law,  and 
for  some  perfect  fruit  to  come ;  as  there  is  evidence  that 
a  plant  which  springs  up  from  the  ground  feels  the  impul- 


2i8  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

sion  of  something  above  the  ordinary  forces  of  the 
soil  and  the  natural  gravitation  of  the  earth  in  which  it 
strikes  its  roots.  Follow  up  the  growth  of  the  Bible 
until  you  come  to  the  age  of  its  great  prophecies. 
Examine  it  there  ;  make  a  section  of  it  at  that  time  ;  and 
you  will  find  it  more  difficult  still  to  explain  it  all  as  a 
merely  human  product.  The  evidence  increases  that  in 
the  midst  of  human  history  a  higher  power  is  working, 
and  events  are  being  formed  and  shaped  for  some 
diviner  end.  You  can  begin  to  understand  somewhat, 
when  you  reach  the  age  of  Isaiah,  the  true  law  of 
all  this  growth  of  the  religion  of  Israel.  It  is  a  growth 
after  a  Messianic  law.  It  is  for  a  Christ  to  come. 
That  is  the  law  of  the  type  of  the  whole  dispensation. 
This  farther  purpose,  this  Spirit  of  the  coming 
Messiah,  forming  and  moulding  the  history  of  the  Bible 
of  Israel,  distinguishes  the  Old  Testament  from  every- 
thing else  in  antiquity  around  it.  The  working  of 
God's  Spirit  gives  unity  to  the  whole  Bible ;  and  this 
law  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  pervading  it  separates  it  from 
all  other  books,  as  the  law  of  life  in  the  tree  in  your 
orchard  has  lifted  it  up  from  the  earth,  contrary  to  gravi- 
tation, and  distinguishes  it  from  the  ground  which 
its  boughs  overshadow. 

Following  thus  the  prophecy  of  the  Spirit  down 
through  the  old  dispensation,  we  come  to  the  Gospels, 
and  the  presence  unmistakable  of  Jesus  himself. 
Nature  and  history  have  led  on,  and  pointed  up  towards 
him  that  should  come ;  and  when  he  stands  among 
men,  declaring  that  in  him  the  law  and  the  prophets  are 
fulfilled,   he  is   his  own   witness.      He   stands   in   the 


The  Pernia7ie7it  Elemejits  of  Faith.      219 

centre  where  all  lights  converge,  and  all  the  generations 
are  before  him ;  and  the  ages,  looking  up  to  him,  say, 
"  We  cannot  declare  his  coming ;  he  is  not  of  us. 
Never  man  spake  as  this  man.  Never  man  lived  as 
this  man.  Never  man  died  as  this  man  !  '^  Having  this 
record  of  the  Son  of  God  on  earth,  it  is  easy  to  add  the 
confession  :  never  man  was  born  as  this  man  ;  never  man 
rose  from  the  dead,  and  ascended,  as  this  man.  This  is 
only  to  believe  in  the  thorough  self-consistency  of  Jesus 
Christ.  This  is  only  to  make  one  music  of  the  whole. 
It  is  easier  to  believe  wholly  in  the  Son  of  God,  than  to 
believe  in  him  in  part.  We  believe,  then,  that  his 
birth,  and  life,  and  death,  and  resurrection,  and  ascen- 
sion are  in  accordance  with  law — one  law  of  divinity 
throughout.  The  heavenly  beginning  and  the  heavenly 
end  are  in  accordance  with  that  heavenly  middle-part  of 
the  life  of  Jesus  which  men  saw  and  knew,  and  which 
was  not  like  man. 

I  have  indicated  thus,  in  outline,  at  least,  a  way  in 
which  it  seems  to  me,  as  a  reasonable  man,  I  can  come  up 
to  Christ,  and  own  him  to  be  Master  and  Lord.  His 
humanity  is  the  proof  of  his  divinity. 

We  have  found  the  Messias  which  is  called  the  Christ ; 
but  now  the  further  question  arises,  how  can  we  come 
down  from  the  Christ  to  the  present,  so  that  we  may 
know,  for  surety,  amid  the  world's  changes  and  con- 
fusions, that  we  have  the  mind  of  Christ  ?  Briefly  and 
generally,  the  way  down  from  Jesus  through  history  to 
us  is  as  follows :  First,  many  men  saw,  and  heard,  and 
knew  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  They  told  others  what  they 
had  seen  and  heard.     Andrew  "  first  findeth  his  own 


2  20  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

brother  Simon,  and  saith  unto  him,  "We  have  found 
the  Messias."  And  Philip  findeth  Nathanael.  So 
the  good  news  spread,  and  from  the  testimony  of  eye- 
witnesses the  world  began  to  learn  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Then  many  began  to  write  out  their  knowledge  of  Jesus. 
There  w^as  formed  a  tradition,  partly  treasured  up  in 
remembered  words,  partly  written,  of  what  Jesus  had 
done  and  said.  Down  into  the  second  century  we  find 
men  referring  to  this  common  knowledge  of  their  Lord. 
Even  if  this  were  all,  we  should  not  have  been  left  in 
total  ignorance  of  Jesus.  But  the  same  Power  which 
prepared  the  world  for  Christ,  and  led  prophecy  up  to 
Christ,  secured  a  fitting  representation  of  the  Christ  to 
after  generations,  and  is  still,  in  spiritual  ways,  showing 
the  things  of  Christ  to  the  world. 

In  coming  up  through  nature  and  history  to  Christ 
we  found  in  the  Gospels  the  impression  of  Jesus'  own 
Person  and  life  upon  the  Avorld.  We  now,  in  bringing 
Christ  down  to  us,  may  use  further  the  whole  Apostolic 
literature  as  the  interpretation  of  the  mind  of  Christ. 

For,  secondly,  under  the  law  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
there  were  formed  and  gathered  up  for  the  whole  after- 
world  the  testimonies  and  writings  of  Apostolic  men. 
The  written  Scriptures  were  finished  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. These  Apostolic  men  were  chosen  and  trained  to 
be  the  record-bearers  of  the  Christ ;  and  they  were  fitted 
both  by  their  personal  position  with  Jesus  or  near  him, 
and  by  the  special  working  in  them  of  the  general 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be  to  us  authorities  for 
Jesus,  and  the  first  interpreters  of  the  mind  of  Christ. 
We  believe,  accordingly,  that  this  written  Scripture  is 


The  Perma7ieiit  Elements  of  Faith.      221 

our  supreme  authority.  But  this  is  not  all.  There 
is  one  step  more  to  be  taken  before  we  can  bring 
Christ  down  to  us. 

Thirdly,  we  must  receive  something  of  His  Spirit  our- 
selves. We  must  read  his  words,  and  understand  these 
authorities  for  Christ,  in  the  spirit  of  Christ.  We  cannot 
vacate  our  own  consciences  and  human  hearts,  and  then 
hope  to  be  filled  from  outside  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord.  AVe  must  become  ourselves  in  some  measure  Christ- 
like in  our  own  thoughts,  purposes,  and  feelings,  in  order 
really  and  fully  to  understand  the  Christ  of  the  Scriptures. 
There  has  been  working  in  this  world  from  the  beginning 
a  divine  Spirit.  It  was  in  the  beginning  moving  over 
the  first  chaos  of  things  ;  it  has  worked  through  life  and 
history  up  to  the  Christ ;  and  it  has  been  working  in  the 
new  world  of  redemption,  showing  to  the  spirits  and 
hearts  of  men  the  things  of  Christ,  and  it  has  not  sud- 
denly stopped  working  in  our  daj,  and  left  us  only  with 
the  letter  which  killeth.  This  is  simply  to  say,  in  other 
words,  that  the  Bible  is  indeed  a  gift  of  God,  but  it  is  a  gift 
of  God  to  the  spiritual  mind  of  the  Church.  It  is  a  gift  of 
God  to  the  Christian  sense  of  the  Lord's  friends.  It  is  a 
gift  of  God  to  the  common  Christian  sense  of  the  Church. 
We  live  in  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

I  hope  now  we  have  found  some  light  upon  the 
question  with  which  we  began.  How  are  we  to  distin- 
guish for  ourselves  between  that  which  is  essentially  and 
permanently  Christian,  and  that  which  may  be  transient 
and  passing  in  our  beliefs  and  forms.  Simply  thus  : 
we  are  to  receive  first  from  the  Scriptures,  so  far  as  they 
go,  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  the  teaching  which  by  his 


222  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

Spirit  he  meant  to  leave  for  us  in  the  words  of  his  chosen 
witnesses.  Then  we  are  to  understand  these  words  and 
teachings,  to  discover  their  substance  and  harmony,  so 
far  as  we  may,  according  to  the  best  mind  which  God 
has  given  to  good  men,  and  after  the  most  Christlike 
ideas  we  can  cherish  as  we  seek  to  receive  for  ourselves 
the  Spirit  of  Christ.  Jesus  Christ,  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  Christlike  heart, — these  are  the  means  given 
to  men  of  knowing  the  everlasting  truths,  the  abiding 
realities,  the  true  God  and  eternal  life.  And  this  is 
precisely  what  the  Apostle  John  said  in  the  twentieth 
verse  of  the  last  chapter  of  his  epistle  :  "  And  we  know 
that  the  Son  of  God  is  come ; " — that  was  the  disciple's 
positive  knowledge  of  the  historic  Christ  who  had  come : 
"  The  Son  of  God  is  come,  and  hath  given  us  an  under- 
standing, that  we  may  know  him  that  is  true ; "  that  was 
the  disciple's  spiritual  discernment  of  Jesus  and  the 
mind  of  Jesus,  the  knowledge  to  which  God's  Spirit 
opened  the  eyes  of  their  understandings,  a  special  gift  of 
understanding  Jesus  imparted  to  the  Apostles,  yet  in  its 
nature  not  unlike  the  work  of  the  Spirit  in  opening  the 
minds  of  men  often  to  fresh  meanings  in  God's  words 
and  works  :  "  And  we  are  in  him  that  is  true ; "  that  is 
the  full  and  final  security  of  Christian  faith  and  truth, 
for  Christians  to  be  in  their  own  hearts,  purposes,  and 
desires,  as  much  as  they  possibly  can,  in  him  that  is 
true,  "  Even  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  This  is  the  true 
God,  and  eternal  life.  Little  children,  keep  yourselves 
from  idols."  Hold  to  the  real,  essential,  everlasting 
Christian  things ;  keep  yourselves  from  worship  of  the 
forms  which  cannot  last. 


The  Permanent  Elements  of  Faith.      223 

I  want  now  to  bring  these  remarks  to  their  more  direct 
bearings  upon  present  things.  Having  indicated,  though 
generally  and  without  stopping  to  defend,  or  even  to 
guard  from  misapprehension,  some  principles  of  Chris- 
tian discrimination  and  confidence,  I  wish  further  to 
make  trial  of  them  in  a  few  applications  to  present 
religious  questions  and  conditions. 

Not  long  ago  a  mere  child  said  to  me,  "  Perhaps  I 
shall  not  believe  when  I  am  a  man  all  the  things  which 
you  believe."  Surprised  for  a  moment,  I  reflected  : 
There  is  before  me  in  that  child  another  mystery  of  a 
living  soul,  called  of  God  to  work  out  its  own  life  and 
its  own  faiths,  ^yhy  should  that  child  believe  by  and 
by  all  the  things  which  I  do  now  ?  If  it  be  true  to 
itself  and  its  God,  why  should  it  not  grow  in  its  day 
beyond  us  in  knowledge  of  divine  truth  ?  I  revere  the 
fathers  ;  but  some  things  which  they  held  we  have  found 
belonged  to  the  glory  which  was  passing,  not  to  the 
more  excellent  glory  of  that  which  remained.  What 
ought  we  to  wish  for  those  children  ?  To  make  their 
minds  copies  of  our  own  ?  But  the  law  of  life  is  not  a 
law  of  exact  imitation.  You  can  make  a  copy  in  clay. 
Life  produces  resemblances,  but  copies  nothing.  Not  a 
dead  faith  would  we  give  to  our  children.  We  would 
bring  them  to  a  living  faith  in  those  things  which  are 
essentially  of  God,  and  eternally  Christlike.  We  would 
not  seek  anxiously  to  reproduce  in  them  all  our  ideas 
and  beliefs  about  religion,  and  about  the  Bible ;  but  we 
w^ould  bring  them  gladly  to  Christ  who  is  the  Truth  of 
God  ever  showing  itself  to  the  world  through  the  Spirit. 
He  has  for  them  and  for  all  generations,  for  each  in  its 


2  24  ^^^^  Reality  of  Faith. 

own  tongue,  the  words  of  eternal  life.  We  would  teach 
our  children,  above  all  things,  those  truths  in  the  Scrip- 
tures, in  the  mind  of  the  Church,  and  in  our  own 
thoughts,  which  reflect  most  clearly,  quietly,  and  purely, 
the  everlasting  realities  of  God's  kingdom  and  its  right- 
eousness. We  would  nrge  them  in  the  early  consecration 
of  their  own  minds  and  hearts  to  seek  with  us,  in  the 
company  of  the  disciples,  for  the  guidance  of  the  Spirit 
of  Christ.  We  would  see  them  beginning  to  walk  their 
way  of  life  with  the  Christ,  who  only  can  guide  into  all 
truth,  hoping  that,  as  they  follow  the  leadings  of  his 
Spirit,  they  may  live  to  behold  in  their  day  more  of  the 
glory  which  remaineth,  and  which  excelleth,  than  we 
have  seen,  or  shall  see,  this  side  our   graves. 

This,  accordingly,  is  one  application  of  my  sermon  to 
parents  who  are  sometimes  troubled  by  the  new  questions 
which  their  children  are  asking,  and  it  may  not  be  an 
untimely  suggestion  for  present  efforts  in  the  Christian 
education  of  the  young :  let  us  seek  in  all  ways — and 
the  fresher  the  better — to  help  them  receive  for  them- 
selves the  simple  essentials  of  Christ's  Gospel ;  let  us,  in 
guiding  them,  look  up  ourselves  steadily  to  the  clearest 
and  abiding  truths,  those  exalted  and  luminous  Chris- 
tian truths,  the  substance  of  things  hoped  for,  by  which 
the  good  in  all  ages  have  directed  their  steps ;  let  us 
pray  that  those  among  us  who  are  young  may  be  brought, 
not  indeed  into  all  our  thoughts  and  ways,  but  under 
the  inspiration  and  the  saving  power  of  the  grand, 
simple,  beautiful  laws  of  the  Christian  life. 

I  turn  a  moment  to  another  application  of  this  subject. 
In  many  directions  the  surface  of  religious  life  is  now 


The  Permane7it  Elements  of  Faith.       225 

rippled  with  the  breezes  of  discussion ;  and  to  some 
devout  and  sincere  men  the  Congregational  churches 
seem  to  be  slipping  into  deflections  from  the  faith  which 
may  end,  they  fear,  in  serious  loss  to  evangelical  religion. 
I  need  hardly  say  that  we  must  recognize  the  fact  that 
at  this  time,  as  in  every  age  of  gro^\i:h  and  revival  of 
religion  in  the  history  of  the  church,  many  things  are 
changing,  and  there  is  a  glory  which  passeth  away; 
nevertheless,  this  century,  like  all  before  it,  belongs  to 
the  Lord  and  his  Christ,  and  our  only  fear  should  be 
not  to  run  ourselves  before,  nor  to  fall  behind  the  Lord's 
leading  of  his  people.  One  duty,  however,  always 
incumbent  upon  believers,  seems  to  me  especially  urgent 
in  any  seasons  of  agitation,  religious  discussion,  or  transi- 
tion. We  should  live  and  abide,  as  much  as  possible, 
w^th  our  own  hearts  in  those  truths  which  to  us  are 
most  real  and  vital.  Our  private  opinions  may  be 
needed  in  the  w^orld ;  our  own  forms  may  be  necessary 
now — I  do  not  say  that  we  should  not  maintain  them  ; 
but  I  do  say  that  for  our  own  quietness  and  inner  truth 
of  faith  we  need  to  look  away  from  this  present,  and 
to  cherish  in  our  thoughts  those  elementary  Christian 
truths  which  belong  to  the  heart  of  the  Christian  faith 
in  all  the  ages.  And  these  are  not  passing  away.  They 
may  be  coming  out  in  simpler  beauty,  in  nearer  approach 
to  the  conscience  of  the  ^s^orld,  in  larger  revelations  of 
their  essential  glory ;  but  they  are  not  passing  away. 
The  belief  in  God  is  not  passing  away, — how  can  it? — from 
the  soul  of  man  who  is  God's  child.  But  from  all  our 
questionings  of  nature,  and  wrestling  of  doubt  with  the 
unknown  angel  of  the  Lord,  we  are  learning,  perhaps 

15 


2  26  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

never  before  so  deeply,  what  those  old  Hebrew  words 
mean, — The  living  God  !  A  candidate  for  the  Gospel 
ministry  rejects,  as  though  there  were  no  fresh  manna  for 
his  faith  in  them,  words  of  belief  in  the  divine  govern- 
ment and  its  inexorable  necessities,  upon  the  strength  of 
which  others  in  former  days  have  done  their  work,  and 
men  look  askance  and  think  a  glory  has  passed  from  the 
faith  of  one  of  the  oldest  of  the  New  England  churches ; 
but  they  should  have  noticed,  striving  for  expression,  the 
fresh  faith  in  a  living  God  who  is  personally  and  imme- 
diately concerned  with  all  things,  and  most  of  all  with 
the  living  souls  of  men  ;  who  has  not  vvdthdrawn  himself 
behind  a  constitution  of  things,  and  whose  government 
is  not  that  of  a  divine  statecraft ;  the  living  God  who  is 
personally  conducting  this  universe,  balancing  every  star, 
and  clothing  every  lily  of  the  valley,  the  Father  of  all 
spirits.  And  do  we  not  need  more  of  this  kind  of 
faith  in  God  ? 

Again,  men  are  disusing  expressions  of  belief  once 
common  concerning  the  atoning  work  of  Christ ;  and 
some,  sincerely  troubled,  say  :  So  passes  the  glory  of 
the  Cross.  Not  so,  my  brethren.  The  glory  of  the 
Cross  can  never  pass  from  earth,  because  it  is  the  eternal 
glory  of  the  love  of  God.  Listen  again,  and  humbly  ; 
and  still  upon  our  lips,  although  in  simpler  words  of 
human  love  and  need,  you  will  hear  the  song  of  the  ages  : 
'*  Worthy  tlie  Lamb  that  was  slain.''  God's  Spirit  is 
bringing  closer  home  to  our  hearts  the  divine  human 
need  there  was  for  such  sufferings  as  Christ's  in  the 
forgiveness  of  tlie  sin  of  the  world.  Again,  there  seems 
of  late  years  to  have  fallen  over  our  pulpits  a  great 


The  Permanent  Elements  of  Faith.      227 

silence  upon  the  subject  of  the  judgment-day.  And 
some  say,  Shall  Jesus^  word  of  eternal  life  and  eternal 
punishment  pass  away  from  our  pulpits  ?  No,  not  so. 
Perhaps  God  has  seen  fit  to  make  a  little  silence  in  our 
pulpits  that  our  confused  echoes  of  Jesus^  Gospel  might 
die  away,  and  men  listen  again  with  hushed  hearts  to 
his  eternal  words.  It  was  time  that  the  echo  of  great 
Caesar's  voice  in  our  Latin  theology  should  cease,  that 
we  might  listen  again  for  the  still  small  voice  of  con- 
science, and  the  calm,  eternal  word  of  the  Lamb  upon 
the  throne.  We  had  to  cease  repeating  the  father's  ser- 
mons upon  sinners  in  the  hand  of  an  angry  God,  at 
which  once  indeed  the  souls  of  men  trembled,  but  by 
which  now  they  are  not  moved,  in  order  that  we  might 
begin  to  preach  again  according  to  the  warnings  of  our 
own  hearts  the  fearful  wickedness  and  doom  of  a  soul  fly- 
ing with  wilful  selfishness  into  the  face  of  the  glory  of 
the  loving.  Christian  God.  Now  that  scholastic  concep- 
tions of  human  depravity,  lacking  moral  reality,  are 
breaking  up,  and  too  mechanical  conceptions  of  retribu- 
tion, failing  in  vital  power  in  the  life  of  the  world,  are 
passing  away,  the  truth  from  of  old  remains  looking 
down  as  from  Heaven  upon  us,  and  commanding  ils. 
God  is  holy,  and  our  hearts  condemn  us.  And  now  the 
silence  which  had  fallen  on  our  pulpits  begins  to  be 
broken  by  more  than  one  trembling  voice  declaring 
the  awful  possibilities  of  loss,  degradation,  and  death 
involved  in  the  natural  destiny  of  a  soul  which  cuts 
itself  oif  from  its  own  proper  environment  of  truth, 
love,  and  God.  The  old  truth,  the  permanent  truth, 
the  substance  of  the  truth,  which  needs  to  be  preached  to 


2  28  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

every  generation  of  selfish  worldlings  with  prophetic 
power,  is  not  to  pass  away — the  truth  of  the  eternal  laws 
of  retribution,  of  the  deadly  consequences  of  sin,  of  the 
peril  of  trifling  now  with  a  gift  of  God  so  precious  as 
the  life  of  a  soul.  The  Avords  of  Jesus  do  not  pass  away, 
although  we  are  learning  to  confess  that  we  do  not  find 
in  his  Scriptures  an  unreserved  revelation  either  of  the 
strange  beginnings,  or  the  possible  endings  of  sin,  and 
Christ  has  many  things  to  say  to  us  which  w^e  cannot 
bear  now  ;  while,  in  the  silence  of  our  own  confused 
echoes  of  the  Lord's  words,  we  may  hear  a  fuller, 
sweeter  revelation  than  before  of  the  glory  Avhich 
remaineth,  the  glory  Avhich  excelleth,  even  the  eternal 
love  of  God  in  Christ. 

Neither  are  the  motives  to  repentance  and  a  godly 
life  passing  from  us.  The  deeper  down  into  God's 
thoughts  in  this  world  we  can  go,  and  the  more  we  may 
learn  of  the  Lord's  ways  and  his  will  for  souls,  the 
more  reason  have  we  to  trust,  and  to  live  wholly  in  the 
simple,  childlike  confidence  of  the  Christian  heart.  And 
the  more  we  learn  of  our  own  evil  nature,  and  our  own 
weakness  and  need  of  being  put  right,  and  kept  right, 
the  more  reason  have  we  for  the  humble  prayer  of  the 
heart  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  and  the  presence  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  our  lives.  God  in  his  own  gracious 
Christianity  is  now  ever  round  about  us  ;  our  true  life  is 
in  that  divine  air  and  element  of  being.  The  one  thing 
needful  for  us  is  for  our  souls  to  breathe  and  live  again 
in  this  all-vitalizing  presence  and  grace  of  God.  We 
must  come  into  entire,  happy  harmony  with  eternal 
things,  or  perish. 


XVI. 

TIME  A  RATE  OF  MOTION. 

"  But,  bflobcii,  ht  not  ignorant  of  t^is  ant  ti^itts,  tf)at  am  iraj  is 
bitt  t]&t  3lor&  as  a  ttousanU  ^mxB,  nnh  a  tf)ou5anlJ  ^tuxs  as  one  iJag." 
— 2  Peter  iii.  8. 

I  HAVE  chosen  this  text  for  a  sermon  upon  tlie  closing 
Sabbath  of  another  year,  because  it  is  an  attempt  of  an 
inspired  Apostle  to  lift  his  brethren  out  of  the  common 
wordly  view  of  time  up  into  something  like  God's  view 
of  the  years  of  man's  life.  The  Apostle  evidently  ^vishes 
us  to  look  down  upon  the  flight  of  the  years  more  as 
God  in  his  eternity  looks  down  upon  them.  We  are  to 
approach  the  idea  of  eternity  not  by  multiplying  years 
together  in  indefinite  figures  of  time,  but  more  simply 
and  truly  by  remembering  that  with  the  Eternal  our 
measurements  of  time  have  no  importance ;  one  of  our 
days  with  the  Lord  is  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thou- 
sand of  our  years  are  as  one  day. 

The  philosophers  have  invented  many  ingenuities  of 
speech  in  the  attempt  to  bring  the  intuitions  of  space 
and  time  within  the  compass  of  human  understanding. 
The  scholastics  used  to  say  of  space  that  it  is  a  circle 
whose  centre  is  everywhere,  and  whose  circumference  is 
nowhere.  And  the  medieval  theologians  labored  to 
impress  upon  men  the  duration  of  the  eternal  ages  by 

229 


230  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

representing  a  bird  as  pecking  against  a  mountain,  and 
removing  in  its  bill  every  time  it  rose  a  grain  of  sand  ; 
and  by  the  thought  of  the  length  ®f  time  it  would  take 
for  the  little  bird  to  remove,  grain  by  grain,  the  moun- 
tain, they  sought  to  find  a  mental  unit  of  measurement 
for  the  ages  of  eternity.  Others  have  imagined  a  strong 
tower  standing  in  the  midst  of  a  flowing  stream ;  and 
they  have  said,  the  ripples  at  its  base  represent  the  pres- 
ent moments ;  the  stream  below  the  tower  represents  the 
time  which  is  past  and  gone ;  and  the  waters  flowing 
down  from  above  represent  the  future  hurrying  towards 
the  present ;  while  the  tower  itself,  standing  unmoved  in 
the  running  stream,  is  the  symbol  of  that  which  never 
changes,  the  eternity  of  God. 

But  the  inspired  text  is  simpler  and  truer  than  these 
imaginations  of  the  philosophers.  With  the  Eternal  a 
thousand  years  are  as  one  day,  and  one  day  as  a  thou- 
sand years.  God  inhabiteth  eternity.  As  he  is  omni- 
present, and  space  has  no  distances  to  his  free  Spirit ;  so 
he  dwells  in  eternity,  and  a  thousand  years  to  him  are  as 
one  day. 

Upon  this  last  Sabbath  of  the  year  I  wish  to  suggest 
some  thoughts  with  regard  to  the  time  given  us  on  earth, 
seeking,  as  I  shall  speak,  to  look  upon  the  passing  years, 
as  the  Apostle  in  our  text  evidently  wished  to  have 
Christians  do.  I  ask  you  therefore  to  reflect,  first,  that 
time  is  a  gift  of  God  to  the  creation.  Time  is  a  bequest 
from  the  Eternal  conveyed  and  secured  in  the  constitution 
of  the  creation.  These  visible,  revolving  worlds  are  by 
nature  temporal.  Time  is  the  rate  of  motion  determined 
by  the  Creator  in  his  own  thought  of  the  worlds.   There 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motion.  231 

is  uo  such  thing  as  time  except  as  there  are  created 
worlds  to  mark  time.  We  cannot  conceive  of  time 
apart  from  the  finite  creation.  Time  is  simply  the  rate  at 
which  the  things  which  are  made  go  on.  There  would 
be  no  time  without  a  creation  to  keep  time.  God  has 
set  up  the  worlds  to  make  and  to  mark  time.  He  dwells 
not  in  these  times  of  his  creation,  but  he  inhabiteth 
eternity.     To  him  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day. 

Now,  inasmuch  as  time  itself  is  an  original  gift  of 
God  to  the  creation,  we  may  well  stop  to  reflect  upon 
the  value  of  this  natal  gift  from  the  everlasting  Fatlier 
of  perfect  time  to  the  creation.  It  is  one  of  the  primal 
evidences  of  the  benevolence  of  the  Creator.  This  origi- 
nal providence  of  perfect  time  for  the  world,  true  to  the 
infinitesimal  of  a  second  through  the  ages  of  ages,  is  evi- 
dence of  the  far-seeing  thoughtfulness  of  the  Creator. 
It  is  the  first  condition  and  means  of  conveyance  of  all 
other  good  gifts  of  God.  Reflect  a  moment  how  every- 
thing in  man's  life,  and  in  God's  own  plan  of  man's 
education  and  redemption,  would  have  been  thrown  into 
confusion  and  spoiled,  had  not  the  earth  in  the  begin- 
ning been  made  a  good  time-keeper  among  the  stars. 
Some  fixed  and  inviolable  order  of  succession,  some  law 
of  perfect  time  is  absolutely  necessary  to  all  man's  work 
under  the  sun.  If  the  order  of  time  were  changed 
arbitrarily  for  the  universe  every  now  and  then,  history 
would  be  chaos.  Time  is  the  magna  charta  of  all  man's 
rights  upon  the  earth.  You  recall  how  prominently  in 
the  first  chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis  the  fact  is 
brought  out  that  the  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven 
were  made  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and 


232  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

years.  A  superficial  criticism  says :  This  earth  is  an 
insignificant  point  of  matter  in  space,  and  are  we  to 
believe,  as  Moses  tells  us,  that  the  suns  and  stars  were 
made  with  reference  to  man,  simply  to  mark  time  for 
him  ?  But  Moses  was  a  wiser  interpreter  of  God's 
thought  in  the  creation  than  many  who  now  know  more 
than  Moses  could  have  known  of  the  record  of  the 
rocks ;  for  he  taught  this  truth,  that  time  is  God's  first 
gift  to  the  earth — ^the  mornings  and  evenings  of  the  days 
in  which  all  things  are  made  good  in  their  seasons. 
Hence  the  most  lordly  star  in  space  is  doing  no  menial 
task,  but  fulfilling  a  kingly  decree,  as  it  marks  upon  the 
skies  the  times  and  seasons  which  God  hath  appointed. 
The  ancient  order  of  the  heavens  is  the  surety  that  our 
God  is  not  a  Sovereign  who  has  made  us  of  his  mere 
pleasure,  but  one  who  has  made  all  things  according  to 
his  good  pleasure  ;  and  whether  man's  works  upon  the 
earth  be  good  or  evil,  this  solar  system  which  God  made 
shall  keep  true  time  without  variableness,  or  shadow  of 
turning,  until  the  end  comes,  and  time  shall  be  no 
longer. 

Keeping  in  mind  this  fact  that  time  is  a  gift  of  God 
to  the  creation,  reflect,  secondly,  that  what  we  know  as 
time  is  only  the  particular  rate  of  motion  to  which  our 
life  on  this  earth  has  been  adjusted.  My  point  is,  in 
other  words,  that  our  time  on  earth  is  nothing  necessary 
to  God,  or  absolute,  but  only  a  relative  thing,  a  present 
condition,  or  rate,  of  our  existence,  appointed  to  us  by 
the  Creator.  This  idea  of  time  as  a  relative  thing  you 
can  perhaps  catch  more  readily  in  some  illustrations  of 
it.    For  example,  you  can  easily  imagine  that  the  human 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motion.  233 

race  might  have  been  put  to  school  upon  a  planet  of 
swifter  revolutions  than  our  earth,  and  all  our  vital- 
powers  adapted  to  the  more  rapid  succession  of  day  and 
night  upon  that  orl:) — our  pulses  made  to  beat  propor- 
tionally quicker,  and  the  whole  mechanism  of  life  and 
thought  made  to  run  more  swiftly, — so  that  the  same 
human  history  might  be  lived  through  upon  that  faster 
w^orld — -just  so  many  days  and  years  as  shall  fill  up  man's 
life  on  earth — yet  at  a  quicker  pace,  and  in  less  time,  as 
we  measure  it  by  our  earth's  diameter ;  while,  neverthe- 
less, it  would  seem  just  as  long  upon  that  supposed  faster 
world,  because  the  motions  and  pulses  of  life  and 
thought  had  been  proportionally  quickened.  Increase 
the  rapidity  of  the  nerve-currents,  and  the  quickness  of 
thought,  at  the  same  rate  that  you  suppose  the  length  of 
a  day  to  be  decreased,  and  a  shorter  time  would  seem  as 
the  longer  day.  The  sense  of  the  duration  of  time, 
that  is,  is  a  mere  matter  of  proportion  between  the  rate 
of  the  physiological  processes  of  our  life,  and  the  rate  at 
which  the  world  spins  round.  So,  on  the  other  hand, 
God  might  have  graduated  our  rate  of  living  and 
thinking  to  the  motions  of  a  slower  planet  than 
this  earth,  and  still  our  consciousness  of  the  duration 
of  the  years,  our  sense  of  time,  have  remained  pre- 
cisely the  same.  Time,  then,  is  only  a  relative  thing, 
the  rate  of  motion  of  the  mechanism ;  nothing  of 
absolute  determination,  or  worth  in  itself.  God  has 
chosen  this  earth  for  our  time-keeper,  and  adjusted 
our  consciousness  of  life  to  its  rate  of  motion ;  God 
has  determined  the  existing  time-rate  of  human  his- 
tory for  us,  out  of  many  possibilities  of  different  time- 


The  Reality  of  Faith. 


rates,  for  reasons  which  he  thought  best,  and  which 
we  do  not  know. 

Let  me  suggest  one  or  two  other  illustrations  of  the 
point  that  time  is  a  relative  thing,  of  no  absolute  deter- 
mination or  worth ;  for  I  have  a  practical  purpose,  to 
appear  by  and  by,  in  breaking  up  our  common  idea  that 
time  is  to  run  on  necessarily,  as  we  nov/  measure  it,  forever 
and  forever.  Let  me  suppose,  further,  that  an  insect  flit- 
ting its  brief  day  in  the  sunshine  is  sufficiently  intelligent 
to  be  conscious  of  its  existence,  and  the  succession  of  events 
in  its  life.  Its  mechanism  of  life  is  adapted  to  the  dura- 
tion of  a  summer's  day.  But  at  its  quick  rate  of  living 
that  day  might  be  as  long  as  a  year  to  us.  The  passing 
of  a  summer  cloud  might  be  as  a  dark  age  to  an  insect 
tribe.  The  wing  of  a  gnat,  it  has  been  calculated,  beats 
eight  thousand  times  a  second.  We  cannot  begin  to 
think  so  quickly  as  that.  Sensation  travels  slowly  from 
our  finger-tips  to  our  brains  in  comparison  with  that. 
But  if  thought  could  fly  as  quickly  as  the  quivering  of 
that  wing,  a  second  to  a  being  capable  of  such  thought 
would  expand  into  minutes'  length;  the  hours  would 
grow  into  days,  and  the  days  into  centuries.  We  can 
readily  conceive  of  a  thoughtful  being  organized  with 
such  microscopical  fineness,  and  all  its  powers  of  experi- 
ence adjusted  to  successions  of  time  so  infinitesimal,  that 
to  its  consciousness  of  being  a  day  of  our  life  might 
seem  as  a  thousand  years.  Time,  I  say  again  then,  is 
thus  seen  to  be  of  no  absolute  worth  in  itself,  but  it  has 
value  only  in  relation  to  the  uses  and  purposes  of  th(j 
created  being  for  whom  the  stars  keep  time. 

I  may  make  this  idea  of  the  relative  nature  of  time 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motio7i.  235 

still  plainer  by  reminding  you  how  often  in  our  own 
experiences  we  escape  from  the  ordinary  course  of  the 
world's  time,  and  in  a  sense  make  our  own  time  for 
ourselves,  as  we  live  in  memory  or  in  anticipation.  For 
instance,  seven  years  are  a  considerable  time  as  marked 
by  the  signs  of  the  Zodiac ;  but  we  are  told  that  they 
seemed  but  a  few  days  unto  Jacob  for  the  love  he  had 
to  Rachel.  One  hour  of  terrible  mental  anxiety  may 
seem  long  as  half  a  life-time,  and  in  a  single  night 
hair  has  been  know^n  to  turn  Avhite  as  with  age.  There 
have  been  hours  in  which  w^e  have  lived  months.  Fear 
and  hope,  sorrow  and  joy,  thought  and  action,  when 
intense,  have  a  certain  witchery  and  mastery  over  our 
time ;  and  not  the  revolutions  of  the  earth,  but  the  beatings 
of  our  spiritual  pulses,  and  the  life  of  our  hearts,  make  our 
days  short  or  long  upon  the  earth.  And  you  all  know 
hoAV  in  memory  distinctions  of  times  and  seasons  disap- 
pear, and  what  was  long  ago  as  measured  by  the  circlings 
of  the  earth  is  as  yesterday  to  the  thoughts  of  our 
hearts.  You  shake  your  thoughts  free  from  the  burdens 
of  many  years,  and  are  back  again  in  memory  in  your 
childhood's  home.  It  seems  long  ago ;  yet,  while  we 
think,  it  seems  again  but  as  yesterday  that  we  were 
children.  We  are  together  again  an  unbroken  family 
in  the  old  home.  At  the  first  break  of  day  we  reach 
forth  our  hands  eager  for  the  Christmas  gifts.  We  sit 
down  together  at  the  home-table.  We  play  the  familiar 
games ;  they  are  all  there — parents,  brothers,  sisters  ; — 
we  hear  the  glad,  familiar  voices ;  we  feel  again  the 
touch  of  a  vanished  hand  ;  the  old  house  with  the  gates 
hanging  just  as  they  did  when  we  children  swung  upon 


236  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

them,  the  fields,  the  woods,  the  brook,  the  snowdrifts, 
the  fire  upon  the  hearth,  the  fresh  world,  the 
happy  endless  days, — ^^ve  are  back  among  them 
again,  we  are  boys  and  girls  at  play  once  more ;  it  was 
but  yesterday  ;  yet,  as  we  sit  and  muse,  it  all  grows  far 
away  again,  distant  as  a  foreign  land,  a  fair  unreality  of 
the  past,  shadowy  as  our  dream  of  heaven.  We  have 
lived  several  lives  since  those  first  bright  days ;  we  are 
living  in  a  new  world  now ;  toilsome  plains,  and  stormy 
seas,  which  we  have  traversed,  lie  between  now  and 
then  ; — how  strange,  how  near,  and  then  how  far, 
is  the  depth  and  distance  of  the  remembered  years  ! 
Nay,  my  friends,  events  may  have  come  to  you  adown 
God's  providences  during  the  past  twelve  months  which 
already  seem  as  though  they  were  both  long  past,  and 
yet  the  nearest  present ;  one  moment  you  feel  still  their 
first  shock  and  daze,  as  though  but  now  the  hand  of 
Grod  was  laid  heavily  upon  you,  and  then  as  you  go 
about  life's  way  of  duty,  and  bear  your  burden,  it  seems 
as  though  an  age  had  already  passed  since  you  learned 
in  your  own  home  what  death  is ;  since  you  laid  your 
first-born  in  the  grave ;  since  that  hour  when  the  nearest 
of  friends  suddenly  vanished  from  your  side,  and  the 
heart  of  your  life  was  borne  away  with  the  spirit  whom 
God  took  into  eternity.  Sorrow  breaks  the  permanency 
of  nature  to  our  hearts,  and  changes  the  course  of  time 
for  us.  We  grow  old  in  a  day.  A  great  bereavement 
makes  one  day  seem  like  years  of  life,  and  again  the 
years  disappear  and  seem  but  as  one  day  since  the  com- 
panionship of  the  friend  who  left  us  only  yesterday. 
Do  not  all  great,  vital  experiences  of  soul  lift  us  above 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motion.  237 

tliese  temporal  things  of  nature,  and  enable  us  to  discern 
somewhat  how  to  the  Eternal  God  our  fleeting  earth- 
periods  are  of  little  importance — one  of  our  days  to  his 
abiding  presence  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thousand 
years  as  one  day  ?  We  mortals  are  all  of  us  swept 
along  in  the  flood  of  the  years  ;  yet  it  seems  as  if  we 
have  power  in  sudden  upspringings  of  thought  to  leap, 
as  it  were,  out  of  this  stream  of  time  and  change,  and  to 
catch  some  gleam  upon  our  spirits  of  a  higher  element 
of  existence,  like  God's  eternal  light ;  and  then  we  fall 
back  again  into  the  hurrying  stream  which  is  our  proper 
element  of  existence  now. 

I  would  impress  upon  you  the  profound  significance 
which  seems  to  me  to  lie  in  this  mysterious  power  with 
which  we  are  endowed  of  rising  in  thought  above  the 
successions  of  events  in  our  lives,  and,  while  we  stand 
in  the  spirit  above  the  course  of  our  own  years,  of 
looking  backwards  and  forwards  and  annihilating  the 
distances  of  time.  It  does  mean  a  great  deal  that  we 
have  things  past,  and  things  to  come,  as  Avell  as  things 
present,  in  our  own  consciousness  of  being.  Human 
memory  is  more  than  a  brute  instinct  for  the  guidance 
of  life  ;  it  is  a  present,  conscious  possession  of  the  past. 
I  am  aware,  indeed,  that  some  materialists  wax  very 
bold,  and  imagine  that  they  can  explain  our  free, 
conscious  mastery  of  time  in  memory  by  some  supposed 
arrangements  of  the  atoms  of  matter  in  the  human 
brain ;  but  as  the  colors  upon  the  palette  of  a  painter 
are  not  enough  of  themselves  to  account  for  the  picture 
upon  his  easel  without  the  touch  of  the  artist's  hand, 
so  the  pictures  of  memory  betray  the  presence  of  the 


The  Reality  of  Faith, 


soul-artist,  the  free  spirit  within  us,  which  combines  at 
will  our  })ast  experiences  upon  our  present  consciousness 
of  life.  And  not  only  our  artist-like  power  of  memory 
over  the  past  materials  of  life,  but  also  this  power  which 
to  some  extent  we  have  of  making  our  own  time  for 
ourselves,  like  a  Creator,  our  power  to  make  our  OAvn 
rate  of  life,  longer  or  shorter,  as  we  hold  time  fast  in 
our  thought  of  it,  or  let  the  moments  run  by  us,  while 
we  are  thinking  or  acting,  betrays  something  godlike  in 
man.  All  this  superiority  of  soul  to  time  in  memory, 
thought,  and  hope,  means  that  there  is  something  timeless 
and  deathless  Avithin  us — something  of  the  being  of  the 
Eternal  in  the  living  soul  of  man.  You  and  I  are 
made  of  the  dust  of  the  earth,  and  are  of  yesterday ; 
but  within  these  bodies  bound  to  the  earth,  and  destined 
to-morrow  to  return  to  its  dust,  is  a  godlike  something 
which  refuses  to  measure  its  life  by  the  revolutions  of 
tlie  stars  ;  a  something  which  sinks  back  into  its  own 
consciousness  of  being,  and  in  its  brooding  thought  and 
love  forgets  the  passing  hours  and  separations  of  this 
mortality ;  a  mystery  of  spirit  within  man  which  by  its 
own  thought  of  God  and  immortality  proves  itself  to  be 
above  the  course  of  nature,  and  possessed  of  a  divine 
birthright. 

Have  I  not  carried  these  reflections  far  enough  to  lead 
us  out  now  to  some  practical  conclusions  pertinent  to 
these  closing  days  of  another  year  ? 

First  of  all,  let  us  take  the  help  for  faith  in  God's 
character  which  the  text  was  intended  to  give.  Wo 
wonder  how  God  can  live  these  long  ages  in  the  calm 
blessedness  of  his  presence  around  our  human  history  of 


Ti7ne  a  Rate  of  Motion.  239 

sin  and  death ;  where  is  the  promise  of  his  coming  ? 
But,  belovcdj  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing ; — God 
does  not  measure  his  times  by  our  clocks ;  a  thousand  of 
our  years  is  as  one  day  to  him.  "  That  to  me/'  said  a 
Christian  gentleman  recently,  as  we  were  speaking  of  a 
savage  cruelty  still  permitted  under  the  sun,  ^^  is  the 
strongest  objection  against  the  character  of  God."  And 
so  it  often  seems.  How  can  God  see  what  we  sometimes 
must  see,  and  be  still  ?  But,  beloved,  be  not  ignorant 
of  this  one  thing  ; — our  measurements  are  not  as  the 
measurements  of  the  Eternal.  We  are  in  the  stream  of 
time,  aud  the  breaking  and  the  chafing  of  the  stream 
over  every  pebble,  and  down  the  rocks,  seems  intermina- 
ble. When  we  shall  emerge  from  it  at  death,  and  stand 
upon  the  shore,  and  see  what  God  sees,  our  whole  world- 
age  may  appear  but  as  the  course  of  a  little  stream,  easily 
mapped  amid  God's  everlasting  purposes,  and,  after  all, 
so  short !  Everything  depends  upon  the  point  of  view 
from  w^hich  things  are  judged ;  and  God  looks  from 
eternity  to  eternity  !  You  look  out  in  the  morning,  and 
see  a  cloud  overhanging  the  top  of  a  mountain.  At 
noon  you  glance  up,  and  the  south  wind  still  leaves  its 
vapors  upon  the  mountain.  At  evening  you  may  notice 
that  the  cloud  is  still  there,  though  beginning  to  be 
changed  by  the  setting  sun  into  a  glory.  It  has  been  a 
short  day  to  you  in  your  business  and  your  pleasures. 
But  had  you  been  on  the  mountain  waiting  for  the  cloud 
to  lift,  and  hoping  for  a  clear  broad  view,  the  hours 
would  have  lengthened,  and  as  you  watched  the  time 
and  the  shiftings  of  the  mists,  the  day  would  have  seemed 
almost  endless.     We  are  now  under  the  cloud — a  very 


240  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

little  cloud  of  sin  and  sorrow,  it  may  be, — a  passing 
cloud — in  the  large,  bright  universe  of  God  !  We  are 
■waiting  for  the  hour  of  clear  revelation  ;  and  this  world- 
age  seems  long.  But  what  is  it  to  him  who  iuhabiteth  eter- 
nity,— who  sees  all  around  ?  Beloved,  be  not  ignorant 
of  this  one  thing  tliat  one  day  is  with  the  Lord  as  a 
thousand  years,  and  a  thousand  years  as  one  day. 

Again,  these  reflections  may  serve  to  teach  us  afresh 
the  real  value  of  time  to  us.  Time,  I  have  said,  is 
simply  the  rate  of  the  mechanism ;  hence  it  is  worth  in 
any  life  simply  what  it  is  used  for — what  is  worked  out 
in  it.  We  may  see,  then,  in  what  sense  we  should  desire 
long  life.  It  is  really  in  itself  considered  comparatively 
unimportant  how  many  days  we  live  as  measured  by  the 
sun ;  the  important  thing  is  how  much  we  live  as 
measured  by  the  gro^vth  of  character.  It  is  what  we 
make  ourselves  to  be  in  time  which  has  eternal  signifi- 
cance. We  do  not  need  to  live  a  century  in  these  latter 
Christian  days  to  determine  whether  our  lives  shall  bear 
good  fruit  abundantly,  or  are  dead  branches  fit  only  to 
be  cast  away.  We  should  look  upon  our  lifetime  as  a 
means  towards  an  end — time  the  means,  and  a  Christlike 
character,  worth  God's  keeping  in  his  own  eternity,  the 
end  of  our  life  here ; — and  if  we  but  gain  the  end,  then, 
so  far  as  we  are  personally  concerned,  it  really  matters 
no  more  whether  we  die  young,  or  in  old  age,  than  it  is 
material  whether  one  has  much  leisure,  or  only  the  needed 
hour,  in  which  to  prepare  for  an  evening  festival.  The 
one  thing  needful  is  that  the  soul  go  hence  clothed  in 
Christ's  wedding-garment ;  not  how  long  a  time  God 
gives  us  to  dress  our  souls  for  that  perfect  society.     Has 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motio7i.  241 

he  not  already  given  us  time  enough  ?  The  Lord  may 
have  his  own  reasons  for  keeping  us  here  at  our  work  a 
longer  or  shorter  time ;  and  he  may  give  us  much  enjoy- 
ment too  of  these  temporal  things  while  he  keeps  us 
here ;  I  am  speaking  now  simply  of  our  personal  use 
and  need  of  time  in  our  preparation  for  the  eternal  life 
and  society.  These  few  years,  more  or  less,  of  hope  and 
care,  of  sorrows  blossoming  into  joys,  and  pleasures 
fading  into  disappointments  ; — what  matter  they — these 
passing  moments,  at  the  longest  but  short,  of  our  earthly 
preparation  for  living  and  loving,  for  thinking  and 
knowing,  for  soaring  and  seeing,  for  worshipping  and 
resting  in  the  presence  everywhere  of  the  everlasting 
Father  ?  Let  our  farewell  then  to  another  of  the  years 
of  men  be  a  word  of  faith ;  let  a  pastor's  New  Year's 
greeting  to  a  Christian  people  be  a  word  of  good  cheer, 
as  from  that  blessed  life,  nearer  to  us  now,  into  wdiose 
fullness  all  the  sparkling,  troubled,  hurrying  years  of 
human  history  at  last  shall  glide.  The  year  just  going 
from  us  has  been  the  end  of  this  world-age  to  some  who 
are  of  us,  and  but  yesterday  were  with  us.  Death  has 
opened  for  some  the  silent  door  into  eternity  at  the  end 
of  a  long  path  of  life  on  earth,  and  to  others  near  the 
midway  height ;  and  also  the  everlasting  gates  have  been 
opened  before  the  feet  of  little  children.  It  is  so  easy 
for  our  life  here  to  stop.  There  is  a  moment's  rustling 
of  the  veil  which  separates  the  seen  from  the  unseen — and 
another  has  passed  behind  the  veil,  and  a  soul  vanishes 
from  our  company  to  be  seen  by  others  again  w^ho  have 
gone  before.  The  grave  at  which  we  stood  ourselves  for 
the  first  time  to  mourn  seemed  as  though  we  had  never 

16 


242  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

before  seen  a  grave  on  earth.  It  brought  all  the  strange- 
ness and  mystery  of  death  home  to  our  souls.  Death 
has  become  familiar  almost  as  life  to  many  of  us  now.  It 
is  so  easy  for  people  to  die.  They  are  always  dying. 
The  least  thing  may  be  enough  to  stop  this  life  in 
time.  These  bodies  were  made  to  die,  as  they  were  made 
to  fall  asleep.  One  who  knew  called  death  sleep.  Both 
death  and  sleep  are  blessed  mysteries  of  life.  It  is  of 
little  consequence  what  time  the  angel  of  life  opens  the 
door  of  death  for  us,  and  we  step  out  of  these  walls  of 
sense  into  the  broad  universe  to  see  God.  Whether  our 
hearts  shall  be  pure,  and  our  souls  made  strong  in  grace 
to  rejoice  in  that  vision  of  the  everlasting  day,  is  the 
supreme  concern  for  us. 

Several  years  ago  I  stood  one  afternoon  in  Mt.  Auburn, 
reading  the  name  of  the  dead  from  a  marble  shaft ;  and 
while  musing,  and  wondering  if  there  were  indeed  a 
spirit  immortal,  and  whither  it  had  flown,  I  saw  in  the 
air  the  glimmer  of  a  wing,  and,  as  though  dropped  from 
out  the  blue  sky  above,  a  bird  flew  down  from  heaven, 
and  alighted  singing  upon  the  tomb.  I  was  looking 
upon  the  place  where  the  dust  had  been  committed 
to  the  dust ;  and  there  came  to  me  the  symbol  of  the 
free,  glad  spirit.  And  not  a  sparrow  shall  fall  on  the 
ground  without  your  Father.  God  knew,  then,  the 
flight  of  that  singing-bird  from  the  sky,  and  the  thought 
of  faith  it  brought  to  one  looking  upon  a  tomb. 

Beloved,  be  not  ignorant  of  this  one  thing,  that  with 
him  a  thousand  years  are  as  one  day.  Let  me  leave  with 
you  this  morning  a  word  of  faith  from  the  God  of  the 
living  who  inhabiteth  eternity.     As  we  bury  the  year. 


Time  a  Rate  of  Motion.  243 

we  preach  Jesus  and  the  resurrection.  He  that  believeth 
on  me,  said  the  Man  of  men  who  knew,  hath  everlasting 
life.  Behold,  for  all  of  us,  now  is  the  accepted  time ! 
Eternity  closes  in  around  us.  We,  too,  shall  soon  be 
out  of  this  earth-time — beyond  this  world-age — and  in 
eternity.  The  life  which  God  would  give  is  within  reach 
of  the  child's  hand.  It  is  here  for  every  contrite  heart. 
The  Lord  Christ  who  is  the  resurrection  and  the  life,  is 
still  with  men,  going  down  with  us  through  these  pass- 
ing days  of  the  old  year,  and  standing  before  us  with  his 
blessing  at  the  gate  of  the  new ;  and  his  greeting  is  a 
glad  voice  from  beyond  time  and  death — and  our  hearts 
may  hear  it  above  the  flood  of  the  years ; — My  peace 
I  give  unto  you  :  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto 
you.  A  little  while,  and  ye  shall  see  me,  because  I  go 
to  the  Father. 


XVII. 

THE  LAW  OF  THE  RESURRECTION. 

"  But  noh)  is  €f)rt5t  risen  from  l^c  htn'is,  an&  iwomc  t^c  firstfruits 
of  ttm  lf)at  sitpt."— I  Cor.  xv.  20. 

We  have  fallen  into  exaggerated  and  utterly  un-Biblical 
views  of  the  place  and  importance  of  death  in  our  lives. 
Our  common  ideas  and  fears  of  death  are  more  Pagan 
than  Christian.  Both  in  our  belief  and  in  our  practice 
we  are  in  the  habit  of  giving  to  death  an  importance 
which  it  does  not  have  either  in  the  Bible,  or  in  the 
nature  of  things.  Consequently,  we  cheat  ourselves  of 
our  OAvn  hope  of  immortality,  and  make  a  stumbling- 
block  of  the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrection. 

Death  to  many  men  is  the  blank  wall  around  life  beyond 
which  they  look  or  plan  for  nothing.  It  is  an  abrupt 
chasm  at  the  end  of  all  paths.  Death  is  nature's  final 
contradiction  of  man.  There  is  no  reason  in  it.  Our 
popular  tlieology,  inheriting  fatal,  Pagan  notions  of 
death,  proceeds  to  invest  it  with  a  supreme  moral 
importance.  Physical  death  comes  often  to  be  regarded 
as  the  greatest  crisis  through  which  a  human  soul  has  to 
pass.  The  hour  of  death  and  the  day  of  judgment  are 
practically  identified.  All  this  is  contrary  to  Scriptiu'e. 
Physical  deatli  is  not  made  the  important  thing  in  our 
Bibles.  Physical  death  does  not  hold  the  first  place  in 
the  economy  of  redemption.  The  Bible  assigns  a  subor- 
244 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection.         245 

dinate  place  to  our  King  of  terrors.  The  Book  of 
Genesis,  it  is  true,  invests  natural  death  with  certain 
punitive  fears ;  but  it  does  not  elevate  death  to  the  rank 
of  the  supreme  and  final  transaction  between  man  and 
his  Maker.  Sin,  indeed,  caused  the  natural  j30ssibility 
of  mortality  to  pass  into  the  certainty  of  death  for  man ; 
but  Adam  was  not  commanded  by  the  Lord  to  live  every 
day  as  though  it  were  his  last,  himself  a  slave  bound 
under  the  fear  of  death  ;  he  was  commanded  to  go  and 
work  in  the  sweat  of  his  brow,  but  with  a  promise  of 
God  in  his  heart.  Man  is  to  w^ork  out  his  time  here,  and 
to  pass  through  death,  as  a  being  not  necessarily  subject 
to  death,  but  born  under  the  higher  law  of  the  spirit, 
and  with  the  possibility  of  eternal  life  always  before  him. 
And  in  the  New  Testament  the  chief  use  made  of  the 
fact  of  death  is  as  a  metaphor.  Jesus  makes  a  metaphor 
of  Avhat  we  call  death.  To  him  sin  is  death  ;  the  maid 
whom  the  people  thought  dead,  he  said,  sleepeth.  The 
crisis  of  a  souFs  history  is  not  in  the  Bible  the  death  of 
the  body.  The  fact  of  physical  death  and  resurrection 
is  used  as  the  symbol  of  the  greater  change  of  a  soul 
from  sin  unto  life.  Lazarus  died  twice;  but  had  he 
died  and  been  raised  from  the  tomb  by  the  Christ  a  third 
or  a  fourth  time,  those  outward  changes  would  not  have 
determined  what  kind  of  a  man  Lazarus  was ; — his  relation 
to  the  Christ  whom  he  had  known  at  Bethany  ere  he 
died,  and  who  stood  before  him,  the  first  face  which  he 
saw  looking  with  earnest  grace  upon  him  when  he  came 
forth  from  tlie  tomb, — that  determined  what  kind  of 
a  man  Lazarus  was; — his  relation  to  God  in  Christ 
was   the   beginning  of    the  judgment  to  Lazarus,  not 


246  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

his  going  down  to  the  grave,  or  his  coming  up  from 
the  grave.  In  short,  physical  hfe  and  death  in  the 
New  Testament  hold  a  secondary  place,  not  the  pri- 
mary; the  place  of  the  emblem  and  metaphor  of  a 
spiritual  fact  and  reality.  The  importance  of  natural 
death  in  the  New  Testament  falls  into  the  background, 
and  the  New  Birth  of  the  Spirit  comes  into  the  fore- 
ground. Physical  death  does  not  cease  to  be  regarded 
as  an  event  appointed  by  God  to  all  alike ;  but  it  does 
cease  to  be  a  thing  of  terror,  the  final  thing,  an  utter 
break  across  the  continuity  of  life,  in  the  New  Testament 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  and  the  eternal  life. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  far  upon  our  exaggerated  and 
un-Biblical  ideas  of  the  place  and  function  of  natural 
death,  because  I  conceive  that  it  is  necessary  that  we 
should  obtain  more  reasonable  and  more  Scriptural 
views  of  what  a  merely  relative  and  external  thing 
death  is,  if  we  would  take  to  our  hearts  the  joy  of  this 
Easter  festival,  and  really  believe  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection.  The  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
is  a  stumbling-block  to  faith  because  we  have  allowed 
ourselves  to  exalt  and  to  exaggerate  death  to  a  degree 
altogether  beyond  reason  and  Scripture.  We  speak, 
that  is  to  say,  and  mourn,  as  though  death  were  the  last 
law  of  life,  as  though  death  were  the  ultimate  fact  of 
our  experience,  and  then  we  have  to  smuggle  in  our 
hope  of  the  resurrection  as  a  miraculous  exception  to 
this  universal  power  of  death.  Exactly  the  opposite 
is  true.  Life  is  the  law  of  nature,  and  death  a  natural 
means  to  more  life  and  better.  Death  is  the  lower  fact, 
and  life  the  higher.     Or  more  specifically,  the  resur- 


TJie  Law  of  the  Resiirrection.  247 

rection  of  Jesus  was  not  the  great  exception  to  natural 
law ;  it  is  an  exemplification  of  the  higher,  universal 
law  of  life. 

This,  accordingly,  is  my  subject  stated  as  a  proposi- 
tion ;  viz. — The  resurrection  of  Jesus  was  in  accordance 
with  the  higher,  universal  law  of  life.  Death  is  for 
life,  not  life  for  death,  in  the  ultimate  constitution  of 
this  universe.  The  resurrection  of  Jesus  is  an  instance 
of  the  general  law  that  life  is  lord  of  death.  His 
resurrection,  as  our  text  puts  it,  is  the  firstfruits  of 
them  that  slept.  In  the  opinion  of  the  Apostle  the 
resurrection  of  Jesus  was  no  more  out  of  the  divine 
order  of  things,  no  more  contrary  to  the  ultimate  law  of 
nature,  than  the  firstfruits  of  the  summer  are  exceptions 
to  the  general  law  of  life  which  in  the  autumn  shall 
show  its  universal  poAver  in  every  harvest  field. 

Before  I  proceed  with  my  reasons  for  this  assertion 
let  me  make  my  meaning  clearer,  perhaps,  by  calling 
your  attention  to  the  following  discrimination. 

We  believe  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  the  great 
miracle  of  history.  The  fact  of  Jesus'  resurrection  is 
the  corner-stone  of  the  evidences  of  supernatural  religion. 
But  now,  you  say,  the  resurrection  was  an  instance  or 
exemph'fication  of  a  general  law  of  life ;  do  you  mean 
then  to  deny  that  it  was  a  miracle?  Not  at  all.  I 
mean  to  locate  the  miraculous  under  God's  general  law, 
in  its  own  proper  place  in  his  conduct  of  the  world, 
where  we  can  see  some  reason  in  it  and  for  it.  I  mean 
that  the  miracle  was  not  the  fact  itself  of  the  resurrect 
tion  of  Jesus,  for  I  hold  it  to  be  general  law  of  life  that 
there  shall  be  a  resurrection  of  the  dead ;  but  the  miracle, 


248  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

in  the  instance  of  Jesus'  resurrection,  consisted  in  iiis 
appearance  to  his  disciples,  and  also  in  the  completion 
of  his  resurrection  in  his  ascension  to  God's  right  hand 
before  the  end  of  this  whole  world.  What  in  other 
words  was  miraculous  about  Jesus'  resurrection  was  not 
that  God  raised  him  from  the  dead,  but  that  he  was 
raised  before  the  last  great  day,  and  tliat  he  should  be 
seen  by  men,  and  recognized  in  his  transitional  or  inter- 
mediate state  between  earth  and  heaven.  The  visibility 
on  earth  of  the  risen  Lord,  before  he  ascended  to  his 
Father  and  ours,  was  exceptional,  out  of  the  common 
course,  or  miraculous.  And  the  God  of  the  living  had 
his  own  sufficient  reason  for  making  this  one  exception. 
It  was  partly  for  our  sakes,  that  the  world  might 
believe.  Was  it  not  due  also  to  the  Person  of  Jesus 
that  he  should  not  wait  with  all  the  saints  for  the  day 
of  final  redemption,  even  the  redemption  of  the  body, 
but  that,  having  been  made  perfect  through  suffering,  he 
should  have  ascended  at  once  to  the  throne  of  God  from 
henceforth  expecting  till  his  enemies  be  made  his 
footstool  ?  The  miraculous,  thus,  in  Jesus'  resurrection 
pertains  to  the  manner  and  time  of  it  rather  than  to  the 
essential  fact  of  it.  It  was  the  firstfruits  of  the  resur- 
rection— an  exceptional  fruit  appearing  before  the  har- 
vest which  is  the  end  of  the  world. 

If  you  should  see  a  tree  break  into  blossom  in  the 
month  of  June,  and  the  next  morning  find  the  fruit 
already  ripe  upon  the  bough,  you  would  say.  That  is 
extraordinary  !  It  is  not  indeed  contrary  to  the  nature 
of  the  tree  tliat  fruit  should  ripen  on  the  bougli,  yet 
contrary  to  all  our  experience  of  growth  that  the  fruit 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection.         249 

should  ripen  in  a  summer's  day.  That  fruit  Mould  be  a 
miracle  upon  that  tree ;  yet  not  in  itself  contrary  to  the 
nature  of  the  tree,  but  only  to  its  ordinary  conditions 
of  fructification.  The  fruit  itself  would  be  perfectly 
natural,  only  the  method  of  its  growth  extraordinary. 
And  it  would  not  be  impossible  to  conceive  an  enhance- 
ment, or  quickening,  of  nature's  forces  which  might 
cause  a  plant  to  break  into  fruitfulness  contrary  to  our 
experience  of  its  usual  times  and  seasons.  Somewhat 
so,  in  the  view  we  are  now  trying  to  win,  is  Jesus'  resur- 
rection a  firstfruit  of  the  tree  of  life; — not  in  itself 
contrary  to  the  law  of  life,  but  in  its  manner  and  time 
out  of  the  common  order.  In  the  miracle  of  his  resur- 
rection we  have  only  to  think  of  God's  quickening,  or 
anticipating,  by  his  power  the  course  of  nature,  not  as 
violating  any  real  principle  of  it. 

It  always  is  helpful  to  faith  to  locate  mysteries  where 
they  will  not  be  in  the  way  of  what  we  do  know,  and  to 
put  miracles  in  their  proper  place  under  higher  and 
universal  laws.  All  we  need  then  to  w^arrant  us  in 
believing  in  some  exception  to  God's  general  method  of 
working  is  to  find  some  good  reason  for  it,  as  we  do  in 
the  anticipation  of  the  general  resurrection  in  the  instance 
of  Jesus  Christ. 

Having  thus  endeavored  to  state  and  to  discriminate 
my  thouglit,  I  now  proceed  to  give  some  reasons  for  the 
belief  that  it  is  true.  I  must  condense  these  reasons, 
however,  into  the  briefest  possible  space,  hoping  that 
they  will  expand  in  your  own  thoughts. 

I  find,  first,  no  little  Scriptural  evidence  for  the  belief 
that  the  resurrection  of  Jesus,  although  exceptional  in 


250  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

time  and  manner,  is  an  instance  of  a  general  law  of 
resurrection.  This  was  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  the 
resurrection.  He  answered  the  Sadducees  of  his  genera- 
tion not  merely  by  asserting  his  knowledge  that  the  dead 
shall  be  raised ;  but  he  placed  the  fact  of  the  resurrec- 
tion upon  the  fundamental  principle  that  life,  not  death, 
is  God's  first  law.  "  But  that  the  dead  are  raised,  even 
Moses  shewed,  in  the  -place  concerning  the  Bush,  when 
he  calleth  the  Lord  the  God  of  Abraham,  and  the  God 
of  Isaac,  and  the  God  of  Jacob.  Now  he  is  not  the 
God  of  the  dead,  but  of  the  living :  for  all  live  unto 
him."  The  fact  that  the  dead  are  raised,  therefore,  is 
no  isolated,  strange  event,  no  exception  to  the  large 
nature  of  things ;  for  life  is  the  rule,  and  death  the 
apparent  exception  in  the  universe  of  the  living  God ; 
all  are  made  to  live  unto  him  ;  all  souls  are  made  capa- 
ble of  existing  in  some  vital  relationship  to  the  God  of 
the  living.  This,  according  to  Jesus'  word,  is  the  high- 
est law  of  human  nature  that  it  should  live  unto  God  ; 
if  there  is  to  be  eternal  death,  that  death  must  come  in 
as  the  exception,  as  the  loss  of  a  possible  good,  as  the 
falling  back  of  a  soul  from  the  kind  of  life  for  which  it 
was  created  to  the  lower  powers  of  corruption.  It  is 
born  for  freedom  and  life  in  constant  relation  to  the  liv- 
ing God ;  if  it  is  to  perish  it  can  only  be  by  making 
itself,  through  some  inner  falsehood,  subject  to  corrup- 
tion. 

Again,  the  Lord's  own  resurrection  is  set  forth  as  an 
event  whicli  could  not  possibly  have  failed  to  occur. 
We  say  Jesus'  resurrection  was  a  miracle,  that  is,  con- 
trary to  what  might  have  been  expected — a  great  excep- 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection.         251 

tion  to  the  law  of  death.  But  that  is  not  the  way  the 
Scriptures  put  it.  They  say,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  a  man 
approved  of  God — whom  God  raised  up,  having  loosed 
the  pangs  of  death  :  because  it  was  not  "possible  that  he 
should  be  holden  of  it.''  "Moreover  my  flesh  also 
shall  dwell  in  hope :  because  thou  wilt  not  leave  my 
soul  in  Hades,  neither  wilt  thou  give  thy  Holy  One  to 
see  corruption.''  It  would  be  impossible  for  death  to 
hold  a  principle  of  life  like  the  Spirit  of  that  Man  of 
Nazareth.  It  would  be  a  violation  of  all  law  should 
the  Holy  One  be  given  over  to  corruption.  There  is 
something  inherently  inconceivable  and  impossible  in 
such  a  thought.  How  can  Holiness  see  corruption? 
how  can  life  itself  be  given  over  to  death  ?  Impossible  ! 
It  would  have  been  a  miracle,  had  Jesus  not  risen  from 
the  dead.  It  would  have  been  a  violation  of  the  inmost 
principle  of  the  creation,  had  the  mere  dust  of  this 
earth  held  him  as  its  own  forever.  It  would  have  been 
a  miracle  without  reason,  a  miracle  not  against  the  ordi- 
nary course  of  nature  merely,  but  a  miracle  against 
God — the  living  God, — had  he  not  risen  from  the  dead 
— ^the  firstfruits  of  this  power  and  order  of  divine  life 
in  the  creation. 

Once  more,  the  same  truth  which  we  have  already 
found  suggested  in  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  the  resur- 
rection comes  out  clearly  and  grandly  in  the  Apostolic 
Gospel  of  the  resurrection.  What  is  that  wonderful 
fifteenth  chapter  of  Corinthians  but  a  setting  forth  of 
the  glorious  law  of  the  resurrection  ?  First  the  histori- 
cal fact  that  Jesus  was  seen  after  his  death  is  solemnly 
attested ;  then  Jesus'  resurrection  is  declared  to  be  the 


252  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

firstfruits  of  the  whole  harvest  of  life  which  is  to  fol- 
low ;  and  then  this  process  of  the  resurrection  is  shown 
to  be  in  the  largest  and  profoundest  sense  natural.  It  is 
a  spiritual  outgrowth  from  this  body  of  death.  The 
nature  of  the  resurrection — the  fashion  of  the  body  of 
the  resurrection — is  in  accordance  with  law ; — if  there  is 
a  natural  body,  there  is  also  a  spiritual  body — the  latter 
is  just  as  much  in  the  divine  order  of  things  as  is  the 
former ; — the  creation  is  made  and  constituted  for  the 
higher  spiritual  body  as  much  as  for  the  lower  natural 
body.  The  method,  also,  of  the  resurrection  is  in 
accordance  with  laAv ; — first  the  God-given  seed — then 
its  quickening  in  the  earth — then  its  springing  up  out 
of  its  earthliness  into  its  own  element,  and  its  beins: 
clothed  upon  with  its  own  proper  form  and  texture,  as 
God  gives  "to  each  seed  a  body  of  its  own."  The 
whole  process  of  the  resurrection  in  its  successive 
moments  and  stages  is  regarded  in  this  chapter  as  in 
accordance  with  law.  "  Howbeit  that  is  not  first  which 
is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural ;  then  that  which 
is  spiritual.  The  first  man  is  of  the  earth,  earthy  :  the 
second  man  is  of  heaven."  The  Apostle  who  wrote 
this  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  the  resurrection  was  not 
standing  dazed  before  a  miracle ;  he  saw  no  Almighty- 
ness  snapping  like  cords  the  laws  of  nature  in  order 
that  man  might  be  delivered  from  the  bands  of  death. 
He  did  not  see  nature  resistlessly  dragging  man  down  to 
death  and  destruction,  and  then,  by  a  sheer  act  of  God's 
power,  the  whole  gravitation  of  nature  downwards 
towards  death  suspended,  and  the  law  of  death  in  nattire 
broken,  as  a  life  suddenly  came  forth  on  the  other  side 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection.  253 

tlie  grave,  and  ascended,  and  gained  the  everlasting 
lieights.  Not  such  was  the  truth  revealed  to  the  Apostle 
who  had  seen  the  risen  Lord,  and  learned  that  he  was 
the  firstfruits  of  the  resurrection.  He  has  caught  a 
glimpse  into  the  first  j)rinciples  of  life  which  go  deeper 
than  death.  He  has  looked  up,  and  there  has  been 
revealed  to  him  something  of  the  larger  spiritual  envi- 
ronment of  earthly  things.  He  has  seen  this  little 
material  crystallization  of  things — this  jewel  of  the 
creation — which  we  call  nature,  in  its  true  setting  in 
God's  eternal  purpose  and  order.  He  has  followed  out 
into  the  spiritual  realm  the  ways  of  God  through  these 
natural  spheres,  and  apprehended  the  unseen  continuities 
of  these  earthly  forces.  He  has  learned,  in  one  word,  that 
the  resurrection  which  he  preaches  is  the  promised  ful- 
fillment of  the  laws  of  life  which  have  been  with  God 
from  before  the  foundation  of  the  world.  Hence  there 
is  no  surprise — no  thought  of  broken  uniformities  of 
nature,  or  miracle  of  power — in  this  whole  chapter  of 
the  resurrection.  Though  it  stirs  our  souls  to  read  it — 
though  we  repeat  its  words  w^ith  trembling  lips  when  we 
bury  our  dead — though  its  vistas  of  revelation  are  mag- 
nificent beyond  all  prophecy  of  our  hearts, —  still  this 
chapter  contains  in  itself  no  word  of  surprise,  no  point 
of  rapt  exclamation ; — it  is  calm  as  a  chapter  of  science. 
It  is  a  lesson  from  the  science  of  the  higher  order  of 
the  creation.  The  stars  which  differ  in  glory  are  no 
more  miracles  in  the  sky  than  is  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  to  the  Apostle  who  had  seen  the  risen  Lord.  The 
sun  and  the  moon  are  no  more  exceptions  to  the  ancient 
order  of  the  heavens  than  the  souls  of  men  raised  from 


2  54  'rhe  Reality  of  Faith. 

the  dead,  and  clothed  upon  with  the  shining  glory  of  the 
celestial,  are  out  of  the  divine  order  and  harmony  to 
the  eye  of  the  Apostle  who  has  seen  the  risen  Lord. 

This,  I  say,  then  is  clearly  and  unmistakably  the  Bib- 
lical teaching  of  the  resurrection.  It  is  in  accordance 
with  law.  It  is  in  the  divine  order  of  the  creation. 
AYliy  should  it  seem  otherwise  to  us  ?  Why  should  we 
regard  it  as  a  thing  incredible  that  God  should  raise  the 
dead?  Partly  because  in  our  pagan  philosophies  we 
have  exaggerated  the  place  and  importance  of  death  in 
the  world ;  partly,  also,  because  we  have  fallen  into  gross 
and  carnal  imaginations  of  the  resurrection  and  eternal 
life,  which  would  be  violations  of  natural  law  most  dif- 
ficult to  conceive.  Planting,  however,  the  standard  of 
our  faith  firmly  upon  this  high  Biblical  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  as  the  final  fulfillment  of  the  law  of  life,  let 
us  noAv  survey  the  field  of  nature  and  see  whether  we 
have  learned  anything  to  make  it  a  thing  incredible  that 
God  should  raise  the  dead. 

Let  us  indeed  be  thoroughly  honest  with  the  truth  of 
nature.  We  do  gain  from  our  little  knowledge  of  things 
a  tremendous  conception  of  law.  When  we  stand  upon 
a  law  of  nature  we  have  footing  upon  a  solid  thing ;  to 
ask  a  man  for  the  sake  of  faith  to  give  up  his  foothold 
on  natural  law  would  be  to  ask  him  to  walk  upon  the 
clouds ;  his  imagination  may  dwell  up  among  the  clouds, 
but  his  reason  cannot.  More  than  that,  to  invite  a  man 
in  the  interest  of  faith  to  shut  his  eyes  to  any  fact  of 
nature  before  him,  is  to  ask  him  to  be  false  to  the  truth 
of  God  in  his  own  soul.  But  is  there  anything  which  we 
have  seen  upon  this  earth  which  contradicts  the  spiritual 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection.  255 

law  of  our  full  redemption  ?  Apparent  contradictions 
to  this  Gospel  of  the  Spirit  there  are,  but  not  one  that 
does  not  grow  thin  when  thought  through ;  not  one 
which  is  real.  On  the  other  hand  there  are  positive 
facts  arranging  themselves  now  in  lengthening  lines  over 
which  we  look  straight  out  into  the  unseen  and  the  eternal. 
The  simple  truth  is  that  we  cannot  begin  to  understand 
or  interpret  this  bit  of  the  universe  which  we  see  and 
call  nature,  except  as  we  regard  it  as  existing  in  the 
midst  of  some  spiritual  environment,  and  at  a  thousand 
points  running  out  into,  and  continuous  with,  something 
not  seen  as  yet  just  beyond  itself.  As  I  cannot  think  of 
a  star  except  as  I  think  of  it  as  in  the  sky,  so  I  cannot 
think  of  this  visible  sphere  of  things,  or  nature,  except 
as  existing  in  some  invisible  realm  and  larger  Presence. 
Tlie  living  God  must  be  close  to  everything.  And  par- 
ticularly, in  confirmation  of  this  Scriptural  faith  in  the 
divine  orderliness  of  the  resurrection  and  eternal  life,  let 
me  now  merely  suggest  these  considerations.  First,  as 
already  intimated,  we  do  know  this  that  death  is  not  the 
only  law  of  nature ;  there  is  also  the  law  of  life.  Secondly, 
it  is  a  fact  that  of  the  two  laws  life,  not  death,  is  the 
higher  and  prevailing  power  so  far  as  we  can  see.  The 
earth  was  dead,  so  they  tell  us,  ages  ago.  There  may 
have  been  a  seed  or  two  of  life  dropped  from  God  knows 
where  upon  its  cooling  cnist.  Now  how  this  earth  lives ! 
There  is  hardly  a  cliif  too  barren  for  nature  not  to  hang 
some  blooming  thing  upon  it ;  and  the  old  earth  teems 
with  life.  Furthermore,  even  here,  Avhere  death  reigns, 
life  has  been  growing  higher,  more  complex,  more  capa- 
ble of  larger  correspondences  with  things.     Between  the 


256  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

lowest  living  tliiug  and  the  brain  of  man  there  is  a  dif- 
ference of  life  wide  as  the  distance  between  the  earth  and 
the  heavens.  That  first  infinitesimal  point  of  life  has  no 
world  with  which  to  establish  relations  larger  than  the 
microscopic  field  in  which  we  have  looked  and  discov- 
ered it,  but  we  have  established  already  relations  of 
thought  and  knowledge  with  the  farthest  stars.  Plainly 
then,  without  any  doubt,  life  is  something  stronger  thus 
far  upon  this  earth  than  death.  Notwithstanding  death, 
life  grows  to  be  more  and  richer.  I  argue  from  this 
evident  higher  law  of  life  on  the  earth  nothing  just  now 
with  regard  to  individual  immortality  ;  but  I  reason 
thus  : — If  in  this  part  of  the  universe  which  I  do  know 
I  can  see  that  things  are  made  for  ever  more  and  better 
life,  and  not  for  death  ;  that  life  on  the  whole  thus  far 
has  proved  stronger  than  death  ;  and,  furthermore,  that 
the  whole  effort  of  nature  has  been  to  develop  a  life 
capable  of  the  largest  things,  not  stopping  with  birds 
that  fly  beyond  the  hills,  but  reaching  ever  on  up  to  minds 
capable  of  thoughts  that  fly  beyond  the  stars ;  if  life,  larger, 
richer,  more  capable  of  everlastingness  seems  thus  the 
manifest  destiny  of  nature,  then  I  may  reasonably  credit 
the  revelation  which  bids  me  believe  that  God's  own 
thought  is  to  bring  life  to  everlasting  triumph  in  some 
final  deliverance  from  death,  and  that  the  living  God 
will  not  pause  nor  tarry  until  he  raises  from  this  earth  a 
race  of  the  children  of  God  capable  of  living  forever  in 
perfect  unison  with  himself  and  his  whole  creation. 

But  this  is  not  all.  What  is  death,  so  far  as  we  can 
see  what  it  is  ?  Here  is  a  minute  living  thing  in  a  glass 
of  water.     You  turn  the  water  out.     That  living  parti- 


The  Law  of  the  Resurrection,  257 

cle  is  now  mere  dust  upon  the  glass.  Dead, — that  is,  it 
is  no  longer  moving  in  an  element  corresponding  to  its 
capacity  of  vital  movements.  AYhat  is  death  then?  A 
living  thing  is  no  longer  in  harmony  with  its  surround- 
ings. It  is  thrown  out  of  its  own  proper  correspondence 
with  things ;  it  is  dead.  Death  then  is  a  relative  thing. 
It  is  simply  some  wrong  or  imperfect  adjustment  of  life 
to  external  conditions.  But  death  may  be  partial,  then, 
not  entire.  A  part  of  the  body  may  be  dead.  A  man 
may  be  dead  in  some  relations,  and  still  live  in  others. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  we  die  daily.  Parts  of  us  are 
throw^n  out  of  vital  relations.  The  body  may  begin  to 
die  long  before  it  is  dead.  Death  is  but  a  relative,  neg- 
ative thing.  Life  is  the  principle,  the  force,  the  law ; 
death  the  limitation,  the  accident,  the  partial  negation  of 
God's  great  affirmation  of  life  in  things.  Now  see  where 
this  thought  leads.  It  points  to  two  conclusions.  Death 
is  the  sundering  of  certain  relations  of  life  towards  out- 
ward things  ;  therefore,  when  the  body  finally  is  wholly 
dead  and  buried,  when  all  these  physical  relations  are 
broken  off,  so  much  of  life  is  certainly  gone  ;  but  noth- 
ing else  in  a  man,  if  there  is  anything  more  of  him,  is 
dead.  Death  is  a  relative  thing  ;  it  only  means  that 
certain  correspondences  have  ceased.  You  must  prove, 
then,  that  a  man  is  now  alive  only  to  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen, and  such  things,  before  you  have  any  scientific 
right  to  speak  of  him  as  dead.  "  You  may  catch  me, 
if  you  can  find  me, "  said  Socrates  as  he  let  his  body 
go.  And  the  Scripture  says,  "  God  is  not  the  God  of 
the  dead,  but  of  the  living."  There  is  a  man  walking 
through  a  field,  thinking  of  home,  or  with  his  mind  in 

17 


258  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

large  correspondence  with  principles  and  truths ;  and 
suddenly  a  flash  of  lightning  strikes  his  body  down. 
How  far  into  the  life  did  that  electricity  penetrate  ?  The 
lungs  certainly  have  ceased  to  be  in  vital  relationship  to 
the  air  ;  that  is,  the  man  as  to  his  lungs  is  dead.  The 
muscle  of  his  heart  no  longer  responds  to  any  vital 
stimulus ;  so  far  the  man  certainly  is  not  alive  to 
things  around  him.  But  did  the  lightning  pierce  to 
that  thouo'ht  of  home  in  his  heart  ?  Did  that  flash  from 
the  sky  put  out  that  reason  just  then  expatiating  in  the 
truth  ?  The  lightning  touched  the  mortal  body ; — who 
knows  that  it  reached  to  the  spiritual  body  ?  Perhaps 
that  is  more  subtle  than  electricity  !  Death  we  know  to 
be  often  but  in  part.  Why  then  should  not  that  force 
which  thinks,  that  power  which  loves,  shaking  ofl* 
in  the  dust  of  the  earth  its  imperfect  correspondences 
of  this  body  with  things,  itself  continuing  to  be,  be  here- 
after clothed  upon  with  still  higher  and  finer  powers 
of  contact  and  correspondence  with  all  nature,  and 
with  the  living  God? 

This  view  of  the  partial  and  negative  power  and  func- 
tion of  death  opens  a  further  rational  possibility  of  life, 
which  you  will  find  discussed  suggestively  in  Mr.  Drum- 
mond's  recent  book  on  "  Natural  Law  in  the  Spiritual 
World,"  and  which  may  be  stated  thus  :  We  have  only 
to  suppose  a  living  soul  in  perfect  adjustment  to  God, 
and  all  God's  laws  of  things,  to  conceive  of  a  being 
possessing  eternal  life.  "  This  is  life  eternal  that  they 
might  know  thee,  the  only  true  God,  and  Jesus  Christ 
whom  thou  hast  sent."  Eternal  life  is  harmony  of  being 
with  the  true  God,  and  the  risen  Lord.     In  such  perfect 


The  Laiv  of  the  Resicin'-ection.  259 

adjustment  of  being  to  God,  and  his  laws,  the  finite 
spirit  would  exist  in  its  permanent,  because  perfect,  form 
or  celestial  fashion  of  being,  its  final  spiritual  embodi- 
ment. Eternal  life  would  be  the  perfect  harmony  of 
the  inward  and  outward  conditions — the  final  union  of 
the  spirit  of  the  just  made  perfect  with  God  and  liis 
universe.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  largest  conceivable  fulfill- 
ment of  the  creation, — a  conception  not  in  itself  contrary 
to  nature,  but  in  accordance  with  the  whole  law  of  its 
beginning,  struggle  of  life  upwards,  spiritual  evolution, 
and  consummation. 

I  turn  aside  here  from  the  pursuit  of  these  inviting 
analogies  of  life  to  some  conclusions  befitting  this  Easter 
morning,  JNIy  sermon  has  been  that,  according  to  the 
Scriptures,  the  resurrection  and  eternal  life  are  no  strange 
miracle,  but  the  fulfillment  of  nature  in  conformity  with 
law.  And  we  have  seen  that  the  analogies  of  life  up 
through  nature,  combined  wdth  all  that  we  really  know 
of  death,  do  not  contravene,  but  lend  confirmation  to 
this  teaching  of  the  Scriptures  that  in  the  resurrection 
our  life  shall  be  made  complete,  and  the  end  of  the 
creation  reached.  So  God's  idea  of  man  from  before  the 
foundation  of  the  world  shall  be  realized  in  the  kingdom 
of  the  risen  and  ascended  Lord. 

Now,  then,  if  these  things  be  so,  it  follows  that  our 
true  life  consists  in  our  coming  at  once,  in  our  own  souls, 
into  the  right,  and  fullest  possible  correspondence  with 
that  which  is  the  real  and  eternal  element  of  life — with 
God,  and  his  righteousness.  We  are  made  to  live  in 
perfect  harmony  with  all  good,  beautiful,  and  true  things, 
or  in   communion  with  God.     The   only  thing  to  be 


26o  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

feared  is  spiritual  death.  That  is  non -adjustment  of 
our  hearts  to  God.  The  soul  out  of  harmony  with  love 
and  truth  may  become  as  dead  as  that  animalcule  left 
dry  upon  the  edge  of  the  empty  glass.  To  attempt  to 
live  as  an  immortal  soul  without  love,  and  not  as  in 
God's  presence,  is  to  dream  of  living  in  a  vacuum.  The 
true  life  is  to  know  God.  Even  now  they  are  most  alive 
who  have  in  pure  and  loving  thoughts  the  largest 
relationship  to  all  good.  The  wages  of  sin  is  death — 
death  piercing  farther  than  that  flash  of  lightning  could 
reach ;  death  creeping  into  the  heart ;  death  clouding 
the  eye  of  the  intellect ;  death,  as  Jesus  said,  destroying 
the  soul  in  Gehenna.  My  brethren,  there  is  one  thing 
which  I  cannot  but  fear  for  myself  and  for  you ;  one 
thing  greatly  to  be  feared  here  and  now  for  any  man 
who  is  not  eager  to  bring  his  own  heart  into  glad  and 
loving  harmony  with  whatsoever  of  God  or  of  Christlike 
things  may  be  revealed  to  him — and  that  fear  is  the  loss 
of  one's  own  soul.  It  is  the  soul  itself  which  we  are 
now  to  gain  or  to  lose.  And  I  am  afraid  of  the  death 
which  I  see  already  going  beyond  the  physical  man, 
benumbing  the  conscience,  and  chilling  the  very  souls  of 
men.  And  though  I  cannot  find  any  Scripture  to  teach 
me  that  countless  heathen  men  are  to  be  shut  up  in 
eternal  darkness  without  ever  having  so  much  as  seen 
for  one  moment  of  gracious  revelation  what  a  Christian 
Being  our  God  is,  or  to  lead  me  to  think  that  any  living 
soul  of  man  shall  be  dropped  forever  from  God's  hand 
unless  that  soul  in  its  selfish  frenzy  puts  out  its  own  eye 
for  the  liight,  and  takes  its  own  death-leap  out  of  the 
hollow  of  the  pierced  hand  of  Love ;  although  I  cannot 


The  Lazu  of  the  Resurrection.  261 

witli  a  good  conscieuce  before  God  preach  to  you  auy 
human  conception  of  the  nature  of  eternal  punishment 
which  I  cannot  first  to  my  oAvn  thought  bring  under  the 
law  of  eternal  righteousness  and  love — and  you  would 
not  believe  it  if  I  could ; — nevertheless,  Avith  an  unblush- 
\\\Z  conscience,  tliouo;h  with  a  hushed  heart,  I  can  and 
will  preach  to  you  upon  this  Easter  morn  this  principle 
of  eternal  life  and  death  :  He  that  hath  the  Son  hath  life ; 
he  that  hath  not  the  Son  of  God  hath  not  life ;  he  that 
loveth  his  life  shall  lose  it ;  whosoever  speaketh  against 
the  Holy  Ghost,  it  shall  not  be  forgiven  him,  neither  in 
this  world,  neither  in  the  w^orld  to  come.  There  is  a  sin 
unto  death  which  cannot  be  forgiven.  For  it  is  a  deadly 
thing,  poisoning  the  soul.  The  soul  of  the  man  who 
shuts  God  out  from  himself  is  as  a  dead  thing.  It  is  as 
dead  as  the  lungs  without  air  are  dead.  And  before  the 
thought  of  a  soul  sinning  unto  death,  an  Apostle  stood 
still  with  bowled  head,  saying,  "  I  do  not  say  that  he  shall 
pray  for  it." 

While  I  can  hardly  conceive  of  such  men  as  I  know 
now  as  miraculously  preserved  by  God^s  power,  with 
unworn  capacity  of  feeling  everlasting  torments,  and 
being  ages  after  ages — longer  than  a  bird  could  peck 
away  a  mountain — continued  in  all  their  faculties  just 
such  men  as  I  know  them  to  be  now, — with  the  same 
good  nature  about  them,  with  the  same  capacities  for 
some  noble  deeds,  with  as  much  heart  and  soul  for  better 
things  as  even  in  their  sinful  worldliness  they  do  show 
now,  yet  put  by  some  appointment  of  God  beyond  the 
pale  of  redemption,  the  moral  possibility  of  which  is  still 
left  in  their  own  nature ;  and  while  I  can  find  no  such 


262  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

iiuagiuation  as  this,  and  many  another  common  concep- 
tion of  the  nature  of  eternal  punishment,  depicted  in  the 
Bible,  and  could  not  understand  it,  but  only  hold  my 
peace,  if  I  did ;  while  I  will  not  burden  the  few  simple 
words  of  the  Christ  with  any  imaginations  of  men,  least 
of  all  with  my  own  :  nevertheless,  there  are  some  present 
facts  of  experience  which  enable  me  to  conceive — I  do 
not  say  it  shall  be  so — I  only  say,  in  view  of  some 
present  consequences  of  sin,  I  can  conceive  of  a  soul 
shrinking  in  selfishness,  and  shrivelling  in  lust,  and  con- 
suming in  sin,  until  it  becomes  at  last  so  dead  that  neither 
good  man,  nor  angel,  nor  Jesus  himself,  could  or  should 
have  further  thouglit  or  anxiety  for  it ;  so  dead  that  no 
friend  searching  for  it  could  possibly  ever  recognize  it 
again ;  so  dead  that  the  tenderest  child  of  God  might 
have  no  more  trouble  for  it  than  the  children  at  play  on 
our  sunny  meadows  have  care  for  the  dust  of  life  beneath 
their  feet ;  so  dead  as  to  be  in  its  ashes  of  manhood,  and 
its  own  loss  of  the  spirit,  beyond  hope — beyond  even  that 
hope  for  a  soul  which  was  first  to  live  and  shall  be  the 
last  to  perish,  the  hope  of  souls  in  God's  own  heart  of 
love ;  so  utterly  and  eternally  dead  as  to  be  buried  from 
the  remembrance  of  the  living,  and  to  be  lost  as  a  free 
spirit  even  from  God  himself, — punished,  as  the  solemn 
Scripture  puts  it,  and  as  any  being  who  ever  shall  turn 
from  the  full,  gracious  revelation  of  God  in  Christ  Avould 
deserve  to  be  punished  with  "  eternal  destruction  from 
the  face  of  the  Lord  and  from  the  glory  of  his  might, 
when  he  shall  come  to  be  glorified  in  his  saints,  and  to 
be  marvelled  at  in  all  them  that  believed." 

God  alone  knows  what  shall   be.     This  conception, 


The  Lazu  of  the  Resiiri'ection,  263 

alrio,  of  the  possible  degradation  and  loss  of  personality 
in  eternal  death  is  only  our  trembling  projection  upon 
futurity  of  one  line  of  the  present  deadly  consequences 
of  sin,  and  we  do  not  know.  Nor  do  we  find  united 
and  harmonized  in  one  clear  revelation  in  the  Bible  all 
the  lines  of  our  present  moral  experience,  and  all  inti- 
mations of  the  Scriptures  themselves  concerning  the 
future  life  and  its  eternal  issues.  This  conception  of 
final  spiritual  death,  which  I  have  just  admitted  as  pos- 
sible, does  not  involve  necessarily  the  idea  of  annihila- 
tion of  being,  or  any  final  loss  from  the  sum  total  of 
created  existence  ;  but  it  implies  the  possibility  of  com- 
plete degeneration,  through  processes  of  sin  continued 
beyond  redemption,  from  personality  and  the  life  of  per- 
sonality. Retrogression  through  sin  may  in  repro- 
bate individuals  be  conceived  as  going  so  far  as  to 
involve  the  loss  of  the  type  of  moral  personality  in 
which,  and  for  whose  perfect  life,  they  were  created.  If 
science  knows  nothing  of  annihilation  in  the  realm  of 
physical  force,  it  has  read  significant  hints  of  reversion 
in  the  ascent  of  life.  Is  that  a  commentary  of  nature 
upon  the  Biblical  revelation  of  the  possibility  of  final 
moral  arrest  and  retrogression  of  spirit — of  the  loss  of 
soul  in  the  world  to  come?  But,  however  we  may 
venture  at  times  to  realize  what  spiritual  death  may  be 
in  our  conception  of  it,  there  is  certainly  contained  in  the 
same  law  which  renders  eternal  life  possible  the  possi- 
bility also  of  eternal  death  ;  and  this  possibility  of  final 
shame  and  loss  is  not  concealed  from  us  in  Jesus^  Gospel, 
nor  is  it  wholly  hidden  from  our  reason  in  the  nature  of 
things.      The   Bible  plainly  presents   righteousness  as 


264  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

gain,  and  sin  as  loss,  of  soul.  "  I  am  come,"  said  our 
Lord,  "  that  they  might  have  life,  and  that  they  might 
have  it  more  abundantly."  "  For  what  shall  it  profit  a 
man,  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  his  own 
soul  ?"  "  Fear  him  that  hath  power  to  destroy  both  soul 
and  body  in  hell."  "  He  that  believeth  on  me  hath  ever- 
lasting life."  "  If  a  man  keep  my  saying,  he  shall  never 
see  death."  ^^  He  that  heareth  my  word,  and  believeth 
on  him  that  sent  me,  hath  everlasting  life,  and  shall  not 
come  into  condemation ;  but  is  passed  from  death  unto 
life." 

The  Lord  is  risen  indeed  ;  but  every  man  in  his  own 
order  :  Christ  the  firstfruits,  afterward  they  that  are 
Christ's  at  his  coming.  For  the  Lord  himself  shall 
descend  from  heaven  w^ith  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the 
archangel,  and  with  the  trump  of  God.  For  the  trumpet 
shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be  raised  incorruptible 
and  we  shall  be  changed.  Wherefore  comfort  one 
another  with  these  words, — yes,  even  with  this  great 
word,  "  The  trumpet  shall  sound."  For  why  should  we 
Christians  ever  think  of  that  great  voice,  and  that  last 
trump,  as  a  wdld  alarm  resounding  through  space — an 
awful  voice  of  doom  ?  Shall  it  not  be  the  full,  joyous 
melody  of  grace  made  audible  everywhere  at  last,  and 
not  one  discord  left?  that  archangeFs  voice  the  har- 
mony of  all  sweet  voices  of  peace  and  good  will  on  earth  ? 
The  trump  of  God !  ringing  out  upon  the  universe  the 
great  joy  of  the  long  expectant  Christ,  swelling  and 
echoing  to  all  worlds  the  peal  of  life's  full  triumph  over 
death  !  The  trump  of  God !  filled  with  the  harmonies 
of  the  eternal  love,  of  notes  so  pure  and  soft  that  the 


The  Law  of  the  Resitrrectioii.  265 

last  sick  earth-child,  saved  by  grace,  shall  awaken  with 
a  smile  to  hear  heaven's  music  in  it ;  and  resounding 
also  beyond  the  stars,  as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  as 
the  sound  of  a  great  host,  proclaiming  that  the  kingdoms 
of  this  world  are  become  the  kingdom  of  the  Lord  and 
his  Christ,  and  heaven  shall  be  forever  where  once  were 
time  and  death,  and  God  who  is  light  shall  be  all  and 
in  all ! 


XVIII. 

LIFE  A  PROPHECY. 

"  jFor  lb«  tarntjst  wpwlati'on  o£  ttjt  frtatioii  baaitctj^  for  lf)«  ni^alinjg  o£ 
tl)t  sons  oi  (Cco&." — Romans  viii.  19. 

We  are  living  in  what  may  justly  be  called  the  pro- 
phetic season  of  the  year.  This  month  of  May  is  to  the 
months  to  come  what  Isaiah  is  to  the  rest  of  the  Bible. 
Nature  now  in  the  living  trees  upon  the  hill-sides  has 
her  companies  of  prophets,  and  in  their  midst  we  may 
feel,  as  the  king  among  the  prophets  felt,  like  another 
man.  We  all  of  us  have  been  conscious,  for  moments  at 
least,  of  a  fresh  joy  of  life  and  exhilaration  of  spirit  in 
tlie  glad  prophetic  spring-time  of  nature.  May  we 
never  grow  too  dull  of  heart  to  feel  the  touch  upon  our 
spirit  of  the  hopefulness  of  May  ! 

I  wish  this  morning  to  take  my  parable  from  nature 
in  its  present  prophetic  aspect ;  I  would  look  upon  our 
whole  life  in  this  world  as  itself  a  brief  prophetic  season, 
like  this  month  of  May,  in  its  hope  of  the  full,  ripe  life 
to  come.  It  seems  to  me  that  many  reasons  justify  us 
in  regarding  our  time  upon  this  earth  as  a  prophetic 
period  of  existence,  a  season  full  of  prophesyings  of 
better  things  to  come.  What  can  our  human  life  be 
unless  it  be  a  book  of  prophecy  ?  We  cannot  under- 
stand many  a  strange  line  in  it  unless  we  read  human 
life  throughout  as  a  book  of  prophecy.  Life  does  speak 
2GG 


Life  a  Prophecy.  267 

often  with  far-away,  mystic,  prophetic  tongues.    We  can 
begin  to  divine  the  meaning  of  many  a  human  life  only 
as  we  study  it  as  Ave  would  a  chapter  of  sacred  prophecy ; 
it  is  confusion  and  tragedy,  if  it  be  not  a  prophecy  of 
the   Lord.     I    shall  proceed,   accordingly,   to   mention 
some   of  tlie   prophetic  elements    in   our   present   life. 
First :  Our  own  being  is  prophetic.     Every  man  of  us 
is  himself  a  prophetic  being.     We  are  made  and  organ- 
ized for  something  more  and  better  than  as  yet  appears. 
We  are  inspired  with  the  thought  of  the  unseen  and 
eternal.     We  have  in  us,  and  carry  about  daily  with  us, 
a  sense  of  something  beyond.     Our  personal  being  is  an 
expectation  of  the  creation  waiting  for  the  revealing  of 
the  sons  of  God.     Each  man  of  us  has  a  prophecy  of 
future  rewards  and  punishments  written  in  his  own  con- 
science.    And  does  not  human  love  have  always  hidden 
in  its  heart  a  prophetic  hope  of  the  future  and  its  com- 
pletions?    The  Avord  of  the  Lord  still  comes  to  men 
through  their  own  conciences  and  hearts,  saying,  There 
is  a    higher    laAv,  and   you  have  your  birthright  in  a 
kingdom  of  righteousness  and  truth.     Would  you  go 
seek  for  some  ncAv  prophet  of  the  Lord  to  declare  to  you 
the   life   beyond?     Listen   to   your  own   soul.     Make 
silence  Avithin,  and  listen  to  your  OAvn  better  self.     You 
are  that  prophet  whom  you  seek.     You  AA^alk  this  earth 
a  king  of  nature,  and  a  prophet  of  another  Avorld.     You 
are  chosen  from  your  birth  and  called  of  God  to  be  a 
witness  to  the  higher  order  of  spirit,  and  to  live  as  an 
heir  of  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Secondly  :  Our  human  relations  are  prophetic.    What 
I  want  just  here  to  make  intelligible  is  the  fact,  that  our 


268  TJie  Reality  of  Faith. 

common  human  relations  — the  relations  of  the  family, 
and  the  best  and  purest  things  of  human  friendship  and 
social  life — have  at  their  root  a  divine  life,  are  blossoms 
and  fruits  of  an  eternal  Love,  and,  when  rightly  inter- 
preteted,  are  prophetic  of  the  perfect  relationships  and 
the  complete  society  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  This  is 
a  profound  yet  simple  truth,  the  reasons  for  belief  in 
which  I  know  not  Avhether  I  can  begin  to  put  into  words 
as  they  seem  to  me  to  exist  in  the  most  real  human  life ; 
yet  if  we  cannot  measure  in  definite  speech  the  faith 
which  life  brings  to  us,  or  rather  the  faith  which  God 
through  life  brings  to  us,  we  may  recognize  the  vital 
truth  that  human  love,  the  purer,  stronger,  and  deeper 
it  is,  does  hide  in  its  heart  a  more  and  more  assured 
prophecy  of  some  heavenly  completion. 

You  will  at  once  admit  that  these  relations  of  the 
family  and  of  human  society  are  of  worth.  They  are  a 
good  for  man.  They  reach  back  into  some  universal 
good  for  man ;  they  have  their  roots  and  their  life,  we 
believe,  in  something  better  and  holier  which  was  before 
them  all  —  in  something  divine.  Accept  your  family- 
relations  and  your  human  friendships  as  gifts  of  God, — 
nay,  as  revelations  to  you  of  what  God  in  his  fatherhood 
and  the  Son  of  God  in  hLs  brotherhood  is, — and  then  all 
these  human  relations  through  which  God  himself  comes 
near  to  bless  you,  will  grow  doubly  sacred  to  you.  There 
is  a  presence  of  God  also  in  them.  They  are  of  holy 
worth.  Any  sin  against  them,  any  violation  of  these 
sacred  human  relations,  touches  something  divine.  To 
sin  against  my  brother-man  is  to  sin  against  God. 
In    his    fatherhood,   as    the    Scripture    literally    ren- 


Life  a  Prophecy.  269 


dered  says,  every  fatherhood  in  heaven  and  on  earth  is 
named. 

We  own  at  once  in  our  hearts  this  sacred,  ideal  wortli 
of  these  human  relations.  They  are  divine  good  with  man 
and  for  man.  Observe  further  in  this  connection  how 
broken,  partial,  and  tragic,  often,  these  human  relations 
and  friendships  seem  in  this  world  to  be.  They  all  of 
them  suggest  something  which  should  be  complete,  holy, 
perfect ;  and  then  they  break  off,  and  in  the  poor  actu- 
ality of  the  present  remain  but  suggestions  of  what 
should  be.  Our  human  relations  seem  in  this  world  to 
have  been  worked  out  upon  some  plan  of  goodness  just 
far  enough,  they  seem  to  have  been  carried  on  in  this 
life  just  long  enough,  to  make  us  think  of  what  the 
perfect  pattern  might  be,  and  to  long  often  for  its  com- 
pletion. Our  best  earthly  society  is  a  partial,  not  a  perfect 
good,  a  beginning  of  what  might  be,  the  consummation 
of  no  good  thing.  Often  the  family  is  rudely  broken 
by  death  just  at  the  season  when  all  its  relations  of 
father,  mother,  brothers,  sisters,  are  coming  to  their 
maturity,  and  the  family  in  its  completeness  is  just 
beginning  to  be  realized.  There  is  evidently  eternal 
worth  in  such  relations  of  life,  but  just  as  we  begin  to 
find  it,  w^e  lose  it.  Those  who  made  each  other's  lives 
so  complete  are  no  longer  dwellers  in  the  same  world 
together. 

Love  here  has  too  often  only  the  beginning  of  its 
good — the  precious,  yet  too  quickly  broken  fragment  of 
its  own  blessing.  Put  then  together  in  your  thoughts 
these  two  facts — the  self-evident  worth  of  these  human 
relations  and  friendships,  and  their  present  incomplete- 


270  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

ness ; — and  do  you  not  see  how  through  their  partial 
good  the  prophecy  of  the  Lord  of  life  begins  to  come 
into  our  lives  ?  The  earthly  fragment  which  love  has 
received  was  given  as  a  promise  of  the  Lord ;  it  was 
never  meant  as  a  completed  thing.  The  present,  broken 
good  is  a  divine  suggestion  to  us  of  the  perfect  life  in 
which  all  that  is  now  fragmentary  shall  be  made  com- 
2)lete.  AVe  do  not  yet  have  the  whole  of  any  good.  AVe 
already,  in  other  words,  have  so  much  given  us  from 
God  in  the  family  and  our  human  relations,  and  their 
worth,  that  we  have  all  right  to  trust  that  we  shall  in 
due  time  receive  their  completion.  AYe  shall  reap  in 
due  season  Avhat  the  Lord  himself  has  sown  for  us. 
The  partial  good  is  a  present  prediction  in  our  lives  and 
in  our  homes  of  the  final  perfect  whole.  All  earthly, 
human  good  is  evidence  of  a  divine  presence  with  us, 
and  a  promise  or  prophecy  of  the  better  things  which 
are  to  come  when  God  shall  be  all  in  all.  The  best  and 
fairest  human  family,  having  its  root  and  life  in  the 
Fatherhood  of  God,  is  as  yet  but  in  part ;  it  is  as  the 
bud  of  ]\Iay  upon  the  tree  of  life ;  we  see  now  only  the 
bud,  and  its  prophetic  richness  of  color;  when  that 
which  is  perfect  shall  come,  we  shall  know  then,  as  now 
only  the  angels  of  God  can  know,  for  what  heavenly 
fruition,  for  what  perfect  clusters  of  life  eternal,  the 
Christian  families  were  given  in  these  their  earthly  buds. 
I  have  not  yet  in  these  statements  led  you  to  lay 
hold,  as  one  may,  of  the  strong  principle  of  reason 
underlying  this  prophetic  interpretation  of  our  present 
human  relations.  These  statements  rest  upon  the  pro- 
phetic principle  which  we  find  in  nature  pervading  all 


Life  a  Prophecy.  271 

growth,  and  pointing  ever  on  from  partial  good,  and 
lower  types,  towards  the  better  things  to  come.  The 
only  diffcrenoe  is  that  when  the  geologist,  or  the  biol- 
ogist, reads  the  record  of  progress  and  ascent  of  life 
upon  this  earth,  he  can  now  read  the  Scripture  of  nature 
backwards,  and  having  before  him  in  man's  present 
form  and  brain  a  fulfilled  prophecy  of  nature,  he  can 
easily  interpret,  reading  backwards,  the  lower  prophetic 
forms  and  types.  What  from  the  beginning  upwards 
was  one  constant  prophecy  of  man's  coming  is  now  our 
history.  But  the  Christian,  Avhen  he  now  looks  forward 
and  thinks  of  the  coming  of  the  second  man,  even  the 
Lord  from  heaven,  has  still  to  read  the  present  pro- 
phetic signs  and  tendencies  of  things  forwards  by  faith. 
Nevertheless,  we  proceed  upon  the  same  principle  of 
reason  whether  we  read  the  creation  backward  or  for- 
ward;— that  which  is  good,  but  which  is  in  part,  is 
always  a  sign  and  herald  of  that  which  is  perfect,  which 
is  to  come.  All  partial  good  is  prophetic.  That  is  a 
first  principle  of  nature.  This  is  also  a  great  principle 
of  faith.  It  is  a  profound  principle,  reaching,  I  must 
believe,  to  the  bottom  of  all  natural  evolution,  and 
yet  simple  as  the  hope  which  will  not  die  in  the  heart 
of  human  sorrow.  It  is  a  principle  of  life  so  true,  and 
60  strong  to  bear  our  faith,  that  you  will  alloAv  me  once 
more  to  endeavor  to  render  this  present  deeply  pro- 
phetic significance  of  human  nature  intelligible. 

Let  me  put  it  again  in  this  way.  You  walk  out  into 
a  garden  or  orchard,  and  you  take  in  at  a  glance  the 
present  predictive  aspect  of  the  vegetation.  Eveiy 
green  thing  is  a  promise.     The  buds  of  i\Iay  upon  the 


272  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

apple-trees  promise  the  gathering  up  of  the  summer's 
rays  into  the  rosy  fruit  of  autumn.  We  might  reason 
rightly  in  this  way  concerning  the  promise  of  the 
spring  :  That  blade  of  wheat,  that  opening  bud,  we 
know,  is  a  living  thing.  It  comes  from  out  some  secret 
of  life — we  should  say  from  out  some  divine  secret  of 
life.  In  comparison  with  the  dead  earth  it  has  higher 
worth.  Being  a  thing  of  life,  it  is  a  thing  of  worth. 
As  compared  with  the  lifeless  soil  it  is  a  better  thing — a 
good — some  higher  thing,  beginning  to  be  on  earth. 
Then  this  good  thing,  this  gift  to  the  fields  in  their 
verdure  of  something  better  than  dead  earth,  is  also  a 
growing  good.  The  verdure  is  not  a  stationary  thing,  a 
fixed  color  left  once  for  all  upon  the  face  of  the  earth. 
Life  is  an  increasing,  a  growing  good.  There  is  in  the 
life  of  the  fields  and  in  the  tree-tops  an  onward  move- 
ment of  nature,  a  perceptible  progress  from  day  to  day 
of  a  good  already  given  towards  something  better  to 
qome.  There  are  in  this  budding,  swelling  life  manifest 
tendencies  of  nature  forwards.  Nature  is  now  evidently 
looking  forward  to  meet  some  greater  blessing  from  the 
sun.  So  now  every  bush  is  a  prophet.  But,  you 
remind  me,  this  predictive  aspect  of  the  spring-time 
we  know  and  take  for  granted  without  reasoning, 
whenever  we  see  a  bud  of  life,  because  we  have  gone 
many  times  in  our  experience  along  with  nature  in  the 
course  of  her  feeasons,  and  beheld  her  prophecies  of  May 
fidfilled  in  the  ripe  colors  of  October.  But  what  man 
of  us  has  seen,  or  knows,  the  firstfruits  of  the  resurrec- 
tion ?  We  have  verified  over  and  over  again  the  prophe- 
cies of  nature  in  the  spring-time,  but  who  has  come  to 


Life  a  Prophecy.  273 

us  with  a  positive  verification  of  this  present  prophecy, 
as  you  call  it,  of  human  nature  ?  We  do  not  see  on 
earth  the  perfect  fruition  of  the  human  family  upon 
God's  tree  of  life.  Such,  then,  I  allow,  is  the  difference 
between  the  spring-time  prophecy  of  nature,  and  the 
spring-time  prophecy  of  our  humanity; — we  have 
verified  the  one  by  its  fruits ;  we  must  wait  for 
the  final  verification  of  the  other.  But  that  is  all  the 
difference.  We  simply  wait  for  the  full  verification  of 
our  faith  in  the  harvest-time  of  the  Lord.  That  is  all. 
The  principle  of  reasoning  is  the  same.  The  truth  of 
the  prophetic  import  of  the  beginnings  of  any  divine 
good  in  the  creation  is  the  same,  whether  w^e  read  the 
growth  of  nature  backwards  in  our  experience,  or  read 
the  growth  of  human  nature  forwards  in  our  hope  of 
immortality  and  the  perfect  society  which  shall  be. 
Divest  yourselves  for  the  moment  in  your  imagination, 
if  possible,  of  your  knowledge  of  the  harvest,  and  con- 
ceive that  you  are  looking  with  an  inquiring  eye  upon 
the  first  May  whose  leafy  life  you  have  ever  seen.  Tell 
me,  without  experience  of  the  harvest,  would  not  nature 
now  have  to  the  eye  of  the  understanding  an  air  of 
expectation  ?  Observe  the  buds  to-day,  and  to-morrow. 
Note  the  beginnings  of  something  of  higher  w^orth  than 
the  earthy  elements  at  the  root  of  every  living  thing. 
Mark  the  signs  of  an  onward  movement,  the  silent 
march  of  the  mighty  forces  of  life  onward,  the  partial 
yet  advancing  victories  of  life  in  the  fields  and  the 
orchards  !  Would  there  not  be  in  all  this  expectation 
of  nature  enough  to  w^arrant  the  hope,  the  belief,  the 
certain  conviction  in  your  own  mind,  although  you  had 

18 


2  74  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

never  seen  a  fruit-tree  standing  with  ripe  apples  in  the 
rich  autumnal  light,  that  there  must  be  some  blessing 
waiting  in  the  after  days  for  the  earth,  some  fulfillment 
to  come  of  such  apparent  promise  ?  And  suppose  fur- 
ther as  you  were  pondering  these  things  and  asking, 
what  is  the  meaning  of  the  beginnings  of  good  and  the 
strivings  of  nature  in  every  bud  ?  what  does  this  fact 
of  gro\Ni;h  prophesy? — suppose  some  one  had  come 
to  you, — some  man  whose  face  made  you  trust  him  at  a 
glance, — and  he  had  taken  his  seat  beside  you  on  the 
green  grass,  talked  to  you  of  the  harvest,  and  told  you 
that  he  had  seen  the  full  glory  of  which  the  fairness 
delighting  your  eye  is  but  the  beginning;  suppose  he 
had  pointed  to  the  vine  before  you  and  said :  "  Where 
now  through  the  rough  bark  you  see  those  breaking  tips 
of  green  shall  hang  in  the  harvest-time  a  cluster  of  ripe 
grapes ;  that  blossom  beginning,  as  though  half  ashamed 
of  being  seen,  to  open  its  heart  of  color  to  the  sun,  shall 
some  day  be  a  perfect  peach  ;  '^ — conceive  he  had  con- 
tinued thus  to  depict  the  fruits  of  the  life  which  you  see 
only  in  its  bud,  yet  in  words  so  colored  with  the  imagery 
of  the  harvest  which  you  had  never  seen,  that  you  could 
but  half  understand  his  meanings ; — would  you  not  at 
once  believe  his  interpretation  of  the  prophecy  of  the 
spring?  would  you  not  say.  That  is  natural,  that  is 
what  I  should  expect ;  although  I  can  hardly  imagine 
it,  some  such  glory  yet  to  be  revealed  nature  evidently 
is  waiting  for  with  this  glad,  earnest  expectation  of  May  ? 
And  thus  the  Lord  of  the  harvest  has  come  to  us. 
He  sits  by  our  side,  and  talks  in  his  divine  way  to  us 
children,  who  have  not  yet  seen  the  harvest,  of  his 


Life  a  Prophecy.  275 

heavenly  fruitions.  So  to  us  in  the  midst  of  these 
prophecies  of  our  lives  and  our  homes,  to  us  among  our 
opening  friendships,  with  our  children  and  our  hopes, 
the  Lord  of  life  has  come ;  and  although  he  has  many 
things  to  say  which  we  cannot  understand  now,  though 
we  are  but  children  trying  to  learn  what  shall  be  here- 
after from  such  things  as  now  appear,  he  says  to  us, — 
I  know;  I  speak  that  which  I  have  seen; — and  his 
words  are  confirmed  to  our  reasons  and  our  hearts  by 
all  which  we  have  seen  and  know  of  the  beginnings  of 
good  in  this  world,  and  of  the  worth  of  the  best  things 
in  our  own  lives,  by  the  whole  prophetic  aspect,  in  short, 
of  our  human  nature  and  our  human  hearts.  Thus 
Christ's  witness  to  God  and  heaven  answers  the  pro- 
phetic history  of  nature  and  humanity,  and  the  witness 
of  the  two  agreeing  in  one  is  the  assurance  of  our  faith. 
Only  we  do  not,  we  cannot,  realize  how  prophetic  to 
Jesus  himself  everything  in  our  human  lives  and  homes 
must  have  seemed.  From  his  heavenly  experience  he 
could  read  downwards  and  backwards  what  is  as  yet  all 
prophecy  to  us.  He  stood  as  One  looking  upon  us  and 
our  history  of  sin  from  the  other  end  of  God's  eternal 
purpose ;  as  the  student  of  nature  among  us  men  now 
stands  looking  back  from  a  man's  knowledge  down  the 
course  of  nature  through  the  past  of  this  earth.  So  to 
Jesus  ever}i;hing  which  we  are  and  do  had  its  worth  and 
reality  as,  judged  from  eternity,  it  is  our  preparation  for 
what  shall  be.  All  our  fragmentary  virtue  and  happi- 
ness were  of  value  to  him  as  he  saw  our  present,  partial 
good  bound  up  in  the  final  whole  of  love  to  God  and 
man.     All  our  discipline  and  pain  of  growth  were  to 


276  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

him  endurable,  and  to  be  welcomed,  as  he  saw  the  life  of 
humanity  in  its  perfect  fruit  in  the  new  society  of  the 
kingdom  of  heaven.  And  the  disciples,  catching  his 
prophetic  spirit,  looked  forward  through  all  trial  and 
seeming  success  of  evil  to  the  new  heavens  and  the  new 
earth  wdierein  dwelleth  righteousness.  So  they  could 
suffer  gladly  for  the  hope  of  the  Gospel. 

There  is  a  third  prophetic  element  in  this  present  life, 
to  which  I  should  now  allude.  We  have  thus  far  con- 
sidered the  fact  that  man  himself  in  his  own  being  is 
essentially  a  prophet  of  the  Lord  upon  this  earth,  and 
also  the  truth  that  our  human  relations  in  their  eternal 
worth,  but  present  incompleteness,  all  bear  witness  of  some- 
thing diviner  to  come  in  which  they  shall  be  made  per- 
fect. A  further  prophetic  aspect  of  our  life  here  we 
may  find  in  the  present  relation  of  our  spirits  to  outward 
things. 

Not  to  be  allured  just  now  too  far  afield  by  a  subject 
in  which  our  thoughts  may  w^ander  endlessly,  let  me  put 
the  substance  of  what  should  be  said  at  this  point  in 
this  wise.  We  have  in  these  bodies  a  partial  good. 
Our  present  embodiment  in  nature  is  a  good,  but  it  is 
not  a  complete  and  permanent  good.  The  union  of  soul 
and  body  we  can  readily  understand  is  a  gift  of  God ; 
but  it  is  not  yet  altogether  good.  Our  embodiment  is 
good  so  far  as  it  goes,  and  for  a  little  time.  It  is  the 
best  thing  on  this  earth ;  there  is  nothing  among  all 
material  things  more  wonderful  than  the  brain  of  man. 
The  stars  in  their  courses,  the  infinite  net-work  of 
attractions  which  constitute  the  order  of  the  heavens, 
excite  our  wonder  and  awe ;  but  are  they  so  marvel- 


Life  a  Prophecy.  277 

lous  manifestations  of  creative  wisdom  and  power  as 
the  living  centres  and  constellations  of  nerve-cells,  and 
the  balanced  forces  and  ethereal  fineness  and  complexity 
of  the  processes  w^hich  the  spirit  that  is  in  man  finds 
given  him  in  the  organism  and  harmonies  of  his  brain, 
for  the  purposes  of  recording  and  comparing  his 
thoughts,  and  executing  his  free  volitions  ?  Man  him- 
self in  his  present  embodiment  is  the  consummation  of 
nature,  and  the  last  wonder  of  the  creation.  But,  never- 
theless, this  body  is  not  enough  for  the  s]3irit  of  man. 
You  can  look  in  thought  farther  than  the  eye  can  see. 
You  can  be  in  the  spirit  where  you  cannot  will  your 
body.  This  present  body  is  good,  but  not  good  enough 
for  the  diviner  spirit  which  is  in  man.  It  is  a  gift  of 
God ;  it  brings  us  into  immediate  correspondence  and 
unity  with  the  whole  mighty  world  of  sense  and  sound. 
It  brino;s  nature  to  the  door  of  intelligence.  It  brino^s 
fragrance  and  beauty  and  light  to  the  presence  of  spirit. 
Well  may  we  exclaim  with  the  poet-philosopher  Herder, 
"  Embodiment  is  the  last  of  God^s  thoughts  in  nature ! " 
Nevertheless  we  die.  AYe  are  not  yet  perfectly  embodied. 
We  are  not  yet  in  final  and  complete  harmony  of  spirit 
with  the  world  of  things.  We  have  in  these  bodies 
God's  thought  of  what  is  to  be  our  perfect  relation  to 
things,  carried  just  far  enough  to  make  us  see  how  good 
it  is,  and  how  much  still  remains  to  be  accomplished, 
before  it  shall  be  finished  in  the  perfect  embodiment  of 
a  spirit.  Body  is  a  gift  of  God  to  spirit,  but  not  yet  in 
these  mortal  bodies  has  God's  whole  gift  been  bestowed, 
his  whole  thought  and  work  of  our  embodiment  been 
brought  to  its  completion.     Our  present  embodiment,  iu 


278  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

other  words,  is  prophetic — wonderfully  and  profoundly 
prophetic  of  what  shall  be.  Yes,  in  these  bodies  so 
wonderfully  made,  yet  so  incomplete,  we  have  nature's 
prophecy  of  the  resurrection,  and  the  earthly  preparation 
for  the  perfect,  spiritual  body  which  shall  be.  In  these 
mortal  bodies,  in  which  we  begin  to  live  and  to  be 
formed  for  immortality,  the  earnest  expectation  of  the 
creation  waiteth  for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God. 

If  to  any  of  you,  therefore,  the  Christian  doctrine  of 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  and  the  final  consummation 
of  all  things  in  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth,  seems 
a  thing  incredible,  I  grant  that  it  is  beyond  the  definite 
grasp  of  our  imagination,  and  that  the  nature  of  the 
spiritual  body  may  be  to  us  a  thing  beyond  conception, 
as  the  fruit  of  the  autumn  would  be  inconceivable  to  the 
child  who,  having  never  seen  a  ripe  apple,  holds  for  the 
first  time  in  its  life  an  apple-blossom  in  its  hand.  But 
I  do  insist  that  the  prophetic  nature  and  law  of  things — 
the  prophetic  significance  of  these  present  bodies  in  their 
temporary  adaptations  to  our  spiritual  uses — is  not  a 
fact  beyond  our  knowledge,  or  contrary  to  any  reason ;  I 
hold  that  the  earnest  expectation  of  the  whole  creation 
from  the  first  organic  cell  up  to  the  brain  of  man  waits 
for  the  revealing  of  the  sons  of  God  ;  I  would  claim  that 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  and  the  con- 
summation of  nature,  as  laid  down  in  St.  PauFs  chapter 
of  inspired  interpretation  of  God's  thought,  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  present  prophetic  nature  of  things,  and 
that  we  can  and  should  believe  in  i\\Q  word  of  God 
which  confirms  the  whole  up-look  and  on-look  of  the 
creation ;  and  we  may  wait,  therefore,  in  the  patience 


Life  a  Prophecy,  279 

of  hope  for  the  glory  which  the  heart  of  man  indeed  can- 
not conceive,  but  which  shall  be  made  known  in  us  who 
are  risen  in  Christ,  when  that  which  is  perfect  shall  come. 

I  leave  at  this  point  this  great  argument  from  the 
prophecy  of  the  Scriptures  of  nature,  conscious  that  it  is 
stronger  than  any  words  of  mine  have  made  appear,  but 
lioping  that,  at  least,  what  has  been  said  may  help  you  to 
hear  more  clearly  the  word  of  divine  promise  coming  to 
you  through  your  experiences  of  this  present  life.  These 
best  gifts,  these  most  precious  things  of  life,  which  are 
left  w4th  us  often  just  long  enough  for  us  to  begin  to 
appreciate  their  worth,  and  then  are  taken  from  us,  are 
indeed  words  of  prophecy  to  our  hearts.  God's  own 
prophecies  of  eternal  life  are  sent  to  us  through  the  best 
and  purest  of  present  things.  Your  griefs  are  true 
prophets  of  the  Lord.  Your  most  sacred  memories  of 
the  past,  and  its  worth,  are  the  Lord's  prophecies  to 
your  souls.  Nay,  the  whole  history  of  redemption  thus 
far,  from  Moses  to  Christ,  from  Christ  to  the  last  regen- 
erated soul,  is  the  prophecy,  growing  and  broadening 
with  the  years,  of  the  kingdom  of  God  which  we  pray 
may  come. 

If  we  are  learning  to  look  thus  upon  all  things  in  our 
present  lives  as  prophetic,  we  shall  find  in  this  view  of 
life  a  world  of  cheer  and  courage.  It  causes  every  day  a 
vast  difference  in  our  feeling  and  heart  for  life,  if  our 
Christian  faith  makes  a  prophetic  May-time  of  our  brief 
season  in  this  world.  WHien  we  sit  musing  over  the 
things  which  are  past  and  gone,  it  makes  all  the  differ- 
ence between  the  Pagan  sense  of  loss,  or  the  Christian 
sense  of  gain  through  life,  whether  we  read  the  chapters 


2  So  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  our  book  of  life  simply  as  history,  or  also  as  prophcc  y. 
Many  a  chapter  in  our  past  which  is  broken,  strange 
fateful,  if  read  as  history  only,  becomes  another  thing 
when  we  interpret  it  as  prophecy. 

There  was  once  in  your  life  a  happy  chapter  of  child- 
hood which  is  all  past  and  gone  now.  If  this  world  be 
mere  history,  and  our  life  a  mere  earthly  plot — all  its 
romance  over  at  death — then  that  chapter  of  childhood 
is  indeed  so  much  remembered  loss.  But  if  this  present 
season  and  system  of  things  is,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the 
spring-time  of  the  ripe  universe  which  is  to  be,  and  if 
our  life  here  is  one  prophetic  providence;  then  that 
chapter  of  childhood  is  not  simply  a  memory  of  bright- 
ness, and  happy  careless  days ;  it  is  a  type  of  the  true 
childhood  ot  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  That  other  chap- 
ter of  a  completed  struggle  and  trial — that  memory  of 
endeavor  and  disappointment — is  not  simply  the  record 
of  a  wasted  strength  and  a  broken  hope ;  it  is  the  record 
written  upon  the  character  of  the  soul  of  the  purpose  and 
dutifulness  which  shall  find  their  fulfillment  in  the  strength 
and  freedom  of  the  world  to  come.  And  that  chapter 
of  happiness — that  chapter  of  love  and  home  which  began 
to  read  like  a  beginning  of  some  story  of  a  better  world, 
and  which  came  to  a  sudden  end  in  the  mystery  of  death, 
— if  read  as  history,  is  indeed  but  the  first  act  of  an 
interrupted  drama,  a  broken  melody,  a  tragedy  of  life; — 
and  to  remember  is  to  mourn  !  But,  my  friends,  read 
that  prelude  of  love  and  home  as  a  prophetic  song ! 
Then  to  remember  will  be  to  hope !  "  I  looked  behind  to 
find  my  past,  and  lo !  it  had  gone  before."  You  had  such 
companionship,  such  support,  such  cheer  overflowing  the 


Life  a  Prophecy.  281 

hours  in  that  happy  past  ?  Think  of  those  things.  Be 
not  saddened  by  keeping  them  in  your  thouglits.  Men- 
tion on  eveiy  fit  occasion  the  names  of  those  who  have 
gone  before.  Those  happy  memories  are  the  Lord^s  own 
promises  of  eternal  life  in  your  hearts.  Come  to  your 
church,  and  delight  in  thinking  of  those  whom  now  we 
cannot  see  in  their  former  familiar  places.  God  has 
given  us  the  memory  of  the  just  as  the  sure  word  of 
prophecy  of  that  final,  blest  society  in  which  they  with 
us  shall  be  made  perfect.  Let  your  eyes  rest  in  joy  and 
in  peace,  morning  and  evening,  upon  that  picture  of  a 
vanished  face — upon  that  better  living  picture  which  you 
carry  safe  in  your  own  heart.  That  picture  is  not  a 
memory  merely ;  it  is  a  prophecy.  "  He  is  not  here,'' 
said  the  angel  in  the  tomb  of  the  Lord  who  was  the  first- 
fruits  of  the  resurrection.  "  Behold,  he  goeth  before  you 
into  Galilee ;  there  shall  ye  see  him."  Walk  still  with 
glad,  springing  step  through  these  fresh  May  fields ;  gaze 
with  happy  eyes  upon  the  beauty  of  earth  and  sky ;  let 
the  sunshine  find  your  hearts  still  open  as  a  child's, 
although  now  you  may  w^alk  alone  where  but  yesterday 
you  walked  with  another — although  now  you  may  be 
Hearing  the  close  of  your  little  life  here,  and  in  old  age 
the  world  begins  to  grow  lonely  around  you ;  you  hear 
indeed  only  echoes  of  other  days — you  have  but  the 
shadows  of  memory  for  the  realities  with  which  once  you 
lived — it  is  silence  and  mystery  around  you  where  once 
were  the  clear  hopeful  voices  of  life — and  you  cannot 
understand ; — but  think  what  means  this  silence  of  earth 
which  God  is  making  around  the  heart  of  old  age  ?  what 
means  this  emptiness  of  the  present  world  ?  what  mean 


282  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

these  echoing  voices  of  the  past  ?  Is  it  not  all  prophecy? 
It  is  the  silence  of  earth  in  which  the  soul  begins  to  listen 
for  the  new  song  of  the  great  multitude ;  it  is  the  sense 
of  loss  in  which  God  enlarges  the  heart  for  the  gain  of 
death.  The  silence,  the  loneliness, — what  is  it  but  God's 
word  to  old  age,  hushing  the  soul  in  expectancy  for  the 
revealing  of  the  sons  of  God  ? 

My  friends,  we  shall  be  far  happier,  stronger,  and 
better,  if  we  are  willing,  whether  in  youth  or  age,  to 
make  one  sacred  prophetic  Scripture  of  our  life  here. 
What  the  Old  Testament  is  to  the  New ;  what  Isaiah 
desiring  to  see  the  things  which  were  to  be  revealed  was 
to  St.  John  leaning  upon  the  bosom  of  the  Lord ; — such 
our  present  is  to  our  hereafter,  our  life  now  to  the  glory 
which  shall  be  revealed. 

Let  us  all — the  young  and  the  old — build  our  lives 
into  this  hope  of  the  Gospel,  and  seek  in  all  dutifulness 
and  consecration  of  spirit  to  the  Lord  Christ  so  to  live 
from  day  to  day,  that  when  this  book  of  the  prophecy 
of  our  earthly  life  shall  be  finished,  and  God  shall  open 
it,  and  read  it  with  us  from  beginning  to  end  at  the  last 
great  day,  the  fulfillment  of  it  may  not  be  in  retributions, 
and  eternal  death,  but  in  righteousness,  joy,  and  peace, 
in  the  Holy  Ghost. 


XIX. 

THE  LAST  JUDGMENT  THE  CHRISTIAN  JUDG- 
MENT. 

"Noln  is  lt«  julrsmtttt  o£  t\)is  bDorllJ:  noto  si^all  ti)C  prinw  of  i^is 
toorI&  it  rast  out." — John.  xii.  31. 

"  ^iiij  \)t,  io^tn  f)«  i«  tomt,  hjill  wnbixt  t!)t  toorllJ  in  nspwt  of  5m,  anij 
of  ri'sfjtfouj&ntss,  anli  of  julj^mmt :  of  sin,  iimusz  tfjc^  itUtbe  not 
on  mc ;  of  xi^W^usntss,  humst  1  50  to  t^e  jFat|)£r,  anlj  jc  i«tollr 
nxc  no  more ;  of  juiismcnt,  iwaujE»t  tt«  prinxt  of  i%is  toorlij  Ijat]^  fiwn 
juirflJlJ." — John.  xvi.  8-1 1. 

According  to  the  Scriptures,  Satan  was  not  seen  falling 
like  lightning  from  heaven  before  Christ  sent  his  disciples 
to  proclaim  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  at  hand. 
According  to  the  Scriptures,  Satan  was  not  finally  judged 
before  he  had  opposed  himself  hopelessly  against  Christ. 
"  Now,"  said  Christ,  "  is  the  judgment  of  this  world  : 
now  shall  the  prince  of  this  world  be  cast  out." 

According  to  our  traditional  understanding,  Satan  was 
from  the  beginning  an  absolutely  diabolical  and  con- 
demned spirit,  who  had  been  cast  down  from  heaven 
before  he  took  part  in  the  sin  of  this  world.  But  one 
of  the  earliest  Biblical  notices  of  Satan,  written  hundreds 
of  years  before  Milton\s  Paradise  Lost,  represents  him  as 
appearing  with  the  sons  of  God  before  the  Lord,  taking 
his  stand  upon  an  apparent  principle  of  justice,  and  con- 
sequently finding  a  hearing  before  the  Lord.     In  the 

283 


284  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

book  of  Job,  and  throughout  the  Old  Testament,  Satan 
^s  not  yet  portrayed  as  the  enemy  who  has  become  abso- 
lutely hardened  in  hate,  and  hurled  himself  in  hopeless 
hostility  against  God.  The  Satan  of  the  Old  Testament 
seems  to  have  still  "  one  foot  in  heaven."  He  appears, 
not  as  opposing  himself  against  God,  but  at  first  as  the 
tempter  and  accuser  of  men ;  next,  a  step  lower  down 
than  where  he  stood  in  the  book  of  Job,  he  is  seen  in  the 
vision  of  Zechariah  as  opposing  the  high  priest,  or  the 
theocracy  represented  by  the  high  priest,  for  whom  the 
angel  of  the  Lord  pleads. 

The  Satan  of  the  book  of  Job  shows  traits  which  are 
not  altogether  unlike  certain  evil  dispositions  of  our 
human  nature.  He  appears  as  a  tale-bearer  and  sower 
of  suspicions  among  the  sons  of  God.  He  uses  truths 
of  religion  as  the  vehicles  of  his  own  hurtful  dispositions. 
He  makes  a  principle  of  righteousness  a  means  of  heart- 
less persecution.  Somewhat  later  in  the  Biblical  history 
of  Satan  we  find  that  this  habit  of  suspicion,  misrepre- 
sentation, and  partial  truthfulness,  has  become  more 
reckless  and  wicked,  and  in  \\\<^  vision  of  Zechariah  the 
Lord  who  had  permitted  him  to  try  the  faithfulness  of 
Job,  rebukes  him  for  his  slanderous  opposition  to  the 
High  Priest. 

The  Satan  of  the  Old  Testament  seems  to  have  been  a 
reactionary  spirit.  He  takes  his  stand  upon  a  partial 
truth,  or  an  incomplete  good,  to  prevent  the  realization 
of  the  perfect  good,  and  to  keep  men  from  coming  to 
the  full  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Thus,  in  the  garden, 
the  serpent  represents  the  claims  of  natural  right  and 
natural  science  against  the  divine  commandment  and  the 


Last  yudgment — Christian  yudgment.    285 

revealed  ^vay  of  life.  Agaiu  in  Job,  Satan  is  solicitous 
for  an  uprightness  of  simple  obedience  to  God's  law,  and 
fears  that  Job's  piety  is  merely  the  result  of  God's  favor, 
and  not  a  perfect  submission  to  the  law. 

The  evil  has,  indeed,  no  standing-ground  in  this  world 
except  upon  some  good  which  God  has  already  made. 
The  lie  fastens  always  upon  some  truth ;  the  Satanic  power 
seeks  to  use  the  lower  good  against  the  higher  blessing, 
and  the  partial  truth  against  the  growing  knowledge. 
Satan  takes  his  stand  upon  a  reactionary  and  false  con- 
servatism in  his  accusations  of  the  brethren,  and  he 
comes  also  among  the  sons  of  God  to  oppose  the  true 
progress  of  God's  purpose  of  good. 

The  evil  one  of  the  New  Testament  is  a  more  fallen 
being  than  the  Satan  of  the  Old  Testament.  He  has 
been  growing  worse  as  God  has  been  showing  himself 
more  gracious.  As  the  light  of  revelation  has  brightened, 
the  sin  of  this  world  has  grown  blacker.  At  first  the 
evil  one  was  opposed  to  man ;  now  he  cannot  withhold 
himself  from  tempting  God  in  the  Son  of  man.  Once 
he  assumed  to  represent  certain  principles  of  righteous- 
ness, and  pretended  to  be  a  servant  of  Jehovah ;  now  he 
hardens  himself  against  God's  revealed  will,  and  seeks 
to  overcome  the  anointed  Christ.  The  devil,  according 
to  the  Biblical  representation,  has  been  growing  worse, 
and  becoming  more  malignant,  as  God's  purpose  of  grace 
in  Clirist  has  been  coming  out  more  clearly  and  grandly 
in  history ;  and  now,  before  God  manifest  in  the  flesh, 
he  is  seen  to  be  the  evil  one,  the  enemy,  the  prince  of 
darkness,  that  wricked  one  who  has  no  part  in  the  king- 
dom of  God,  the  father  of  lies,  who  is  now  fully  dis- 


286  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

closed  in  his  hatred  to  the  truth,  and  shown  to  have 
been  a  murderer  from  the  beginning.  So  Satan  is 
finally  manifested  and  judged  by  his  final  opposition  to 
Christ.  He  ends  all  possible  opportunity  for  himself 
by  his  enmity  to  God  in  Christ.  He  shuts  himself 
wholly  out  from  heaven  by  entering  as  a  spirit  of  hate 
into  the  heart  of  the  betrayer  of  the  Christ.  Consent- 
ing to  the  crucifixion  of  Love,  he  has  henceforth  not  a 
single  right,  or  truth,  or  principle  of  justice  left,  by 
which  as  of  old  he  can  claim  a  hearing  among  the  sons 
of  God.  What  might  have  been,  if,  even  at  the  eleventh 
hour,  Satan  had  thrown  himself  upon  the  mercy  of 
Jesus  Christ ;  if,  instead  of  taking  Jesus  up  into  a  high 
mountain,  and  exhausting  his  malignant  art  in  the 
attempt  to  deceive  the  Son  of  God,  he  had  cast  himself 
upon  his  mercy,  accepting  as  his  desert  God's  condem- 
nation, and  praying  for  forgiveness  from  the  Lamb  of 
God  ; — concerning  this  Jesus  has  not  told  us,  and  we  do 
not  know.  But  this  fact  does  appear  clearly  and  dis- 
tinctly in  the  Biblical  history  of  Satan, — he  was  finally 
condemned,  he  was  cast  out  as  beyond  all  redemption, 
when  it  was  evident  that  he  had  hardened  his  will 
against  the  final  and  perfect  manifestation  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ.  Job  had  seen  Satan  among  the  sons  of 
God  before  the  Lord  ;  the  prophet  still  later  had  beheld 
him  accusing  the  high  priest  before  the  angel  of  the 
Lord ; — Jesus  said,  "  I  beheld  Satan  fallen  as  lightning 
from  heaven  !  "  As  Christ  foretold  the  coming  of  his 
hour,  knowing  that  his  love  must  needs  judge  the 
Satanic  hate  which  would  crucify  him,  he  said,  "  Now 
is  the  judgment  of  this  world  :  now  shall  the  prince  of 


Last  Judgment — Christian  yudgment.     287 

this  world  be  cast  out.  And  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from 
the  earth,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  Satan's  day  is 
over.  He  has  proved  himself  to  be  Satanic  beyond 
divine  redemption  before  the  Holy  One  of  God.  This 
world,  also,  upon  the  revelation  and  judgment  of  its 
principle  of  sin  before  the  cross  of  Christ,  passes  into  a 
new,  and  for  it,  likewise  final  era.  Henceforth  its  pre- 
liminary trial,  and  provisional  judgment  by  the  law,  are 
over ;  since  the  Lord  was  crucified,  its  last  day  of  Chris- 
tian trial  and  judgment  has  begun.  "  If  I  had  not 
come  and  spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not  had  sin  :  but 
now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin."  The  Christian 
dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  is,  and  morally  must  be, 
the  beginning  of  the  end.  This  day  of  grace  is  the 
season  before  the  harvest  in  which  our  history  is  ripen- 
ing for  its  judgment.  Before  pronouncing  that  word 
of  judgment  upon  Satan, — "  Now  is  the  prince  of  this 
world  cast  out," — God  had  waited  mitil  Christ  had 
come,  and  Satan  had  condemned  himself  before  the 
Christ;  surely  God  will  be  as  patient  with  men,  and 
none  shall  receive  his  final  judgment  before  the  law  of 
nature,  or  from  Moses'  seat,  but  by  the  word  of  the  Sou 
of  man.  Christ's  coming  and  speaking  brings  life  to 
its  crisis ;  the  world,  Jesus  plainly  declares,  "  had  not 
had  sin  " — final,  irretrievable  sin — in  the  state  of  nature 
before  Christ  came.  All  shall  receive  final  Christian 
judgment — we  must  all  stand  before  the  judgment-seat 
of  Christ.  Every  man  is  to  be  finally  judged  in  view 
of  Christ,  and  his  personal  relation  to  Christ.  Thus 
Jesus  said,  as  he  looked  forward  to  his  hour,  and  to  the 
new  world-age  which  should  begin  from  his  death  and 


288  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

resurrection :  "  The  Comforter,  when  he  is  come,  shall 
convict  the  world  in  respect  of  sin,  and  of  righteousness, 
and  of  judgment :  of  sin  because  they  believe  not  on 
me ;  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  the  Father,  and 
ye  behold  me  no  more  ;  of  judgment,  because  the  prince 
of  this  world  hath  been  judged." 

Thus  far  I  have  followed  up  to  this  solemn  text  the 
Biblical  teaching  concerning  the  development,  and  judg- 
ment through  Christ's  coming,  of  the  principle  and 
power  of  sin.  It  appears  that  the  Satanic  principle  or 
power  in  our  history  grows  more  diabolical,  forfeits  all 
claim  upon  the  forbearance  of  God,  and  becomes  fully 
ripe  for  the  judgment  under  the  final  revelation  of  God's 
love  in  Christ.  No  prophet  before  Christ  could  have 
said,  and  Christ  himself  could  say  only  in  anticipation 
of  his  hour  of  crucifixion,  and  his  final  glory :  "  Now  is 
the  judgment  of  this  world."  "The  Spirit  shall  convict 
the  w^orld  in  respect  of  sin  because  they  believe  not  on 
me ;  and  of  righteousness,  because  I  go  to  my  Father  ; 
and  of  judgment,  because  the  prince  of  this  world  hath 
been  judged." 

Thus  far  the  Scriptural  teaching  is  definite.  Until 
Christ  came,  Satan  had  still,  as  it  were,  "  one  foot  in 
heaven."  Sin  comes  to  its  final  judgment  before  the 
cross  of  Christ.  Sin  is  to  receive  its  final  doom  from 
God  only  as  it  shall  have  proved  itself  to  be  absolutely 
sinful,  or  incapable  of  redemption,  before  the  Cross  of 
atoning  love. 

I  am  not  arguing  this  pro]X)sition  now  from  reason, 
nor  from  our  Christian  sense  of  the  judgment  which  we 
might  expect  from  God ;  I  have  been  showing  that  in 


Last  Judgment — Christian  yudgment.    289 

the  Scriptures  sin  does  not  assume  its  final  form  and 
permanence,  and  Satan  even  is  not  seen  to  be  utterly 
Satanic,  until  the  day  of  grace  comes,  and  Christ  is  cruci- 
fied, and  goes  to  the  Father.  The  same  Biblical  truth 
appears  in  the  parable  of  the  husbandmen  who  were  not 
cast  out  until,  after  having  rejected  messenger  after 
messenger  from  the  king,  at  last  they  slew  his  beloved 
son.  Then  forbearance  had  nothing  left  to  give,  and  they 
were  destroyed. 

Thus  far  the  Scriptures.  If  we  find  in  this  Biblical 
representation  a  principle  of  far-reaching  ramification, 
although  it  may  seem  hazardous  for  us  in  some  direc- 
tions to  follow  it  up  and  out  to  its  last  consequences,  we 
should  not  on  that  account  let  go  the  grasp  of  our  theol- 
ogy upon  a  great  truth  of  the  divine  judgment  which 
has  its  firm  roots  in  the  Bible.  It  will  prove  more 
perilous  to  faith  and  to  all  evangelistic  effort,  if  we  do 
not  gain  and  keep  a  strong  confidence  in  the  essential 
Christianity  of  God's  method  and  purpose  in  the  final 
judgment  of  sin.  We  should  not  suffer  either  our  hopes 
or  our  fears,  our  prejudices  or  our  traditions,  to  interpret 
any  Scripture  for  us.  And  there  is  hardly  a  truth  or 
principle  of  the  Gospel  which  may  not  be  applied — 
which  in  some  one's  logical  use  of  it  has  not  been 
abused — to  the  hurt  and  peril  of  souls.  Thus  the  Scrip- 
tural teaching  of  the  necessity  of  regeneration  by  the 
Holy  Spirit  may  easily  be  so  preached  as  to  restrain 
human  effort  for  the  conversion  of  souls.  The  doctrine 
of  predestination,  or  the  expectation  of  the  second  coming 
of  Christ,  might  logically  be  laid  as  a  check  upon  mis- 
sionary endeavor ;  so  also  the  half-truth  of  a  moral  trial 

19 


290  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

and  judgment  of  the  heathen  under  the  light  of  nature 
and  througli  conscience  might  be  dragged  by  logical 
inference  into  the  way  of  Christ's  commandment  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature.  But  any  Biblical 
truth  or  principle  should  be  welcomed  by  us  so  far  as 
we  can  understand  it,  and  trusted  by  us  to  take  care  of 
its  own  proper  consequences.  Our  caution  and  our  fear 
need  not  concern  the  practical  results  in  the  world  of 
any  truth ;  our  only  anxiety  should  be  lest  we  ourselves 
miss  the  Scriptural  truth  in  its  largeness  and  in  its  integ- 
rity, or  stumble  in  our  own  short-sighted  and  unchari- 
table applications  of  it.  Hence  we  should  not  hesitate 
to  accept  this  truth  of  the  Gospel  that  all  men  are  to  be 
finally  judged  by  their  personal  relation  to  God  in  Christ, 
and  that  now  the  Holy  Spirit  brings  the  crisis  of  char- 
acter and  the  beginning  of  the  end  to  all  souls  to  whom 
it  witnesses  of  God  in  his  Christian  revelation  of  his  love. 
According  to  the  Scriptures,  and  by  no  remote  inference 
from  many  texts,  the  j)rinciple  of  the  last  judgment  is 
the  revelation  of  human  character  in  the  light  of  Christ ; 
— the  final  judgment  shall  be  for  all  souls  a  Christian 
judgment — a  judgment  before  nothing  less  searching 
and  decisive  than  God  manifest  in  Christ. 

I  do  not  disguise  from  myself  the  fact  that  this  simple 
Biblical  principle  of  the  final  judgment  of  sin  through 
Christ,  and  man's  relation  to  the  supreme  revelation  of 
God  in  Christ,  is  a  principle  of  very  wide  and  deep  theo- 
logical application,  having  possibly  in  it  the  power  of  a 
better  theodicy,  or  vindication  of  God's  ways  towards 
man,  than  our  New  England  theology  has  as  yet  attained 
by  means  of  its  governmental  maxims ;  but  the  infer- 


Last  judgment — Chins tiau  yicdgment.    291 

ences  from  this  Biblical  truth  would  require  a  volume 
rather  than  a  sermon  for  their  consideration  ;  my  present 
object  is  practical  and  personal.  I  am  not  preaching 
here  to  antediluvians,  to  whom  God  was  revealed  chiefly 
as  the  Almighty  Sovereign ;  nor  to  infants  whose  life 
has  not  yet  developed  into  actual  moral  personality ;  nor 
to  idiots  whose  souls  nature  holds  still  half-formed  until 
death  shall  give  them  birth  in  spiritual  freedom ; — I  am 
preaching  to  men  and  women  who  have  been  permitted 
to  live  in  the  day  of  grace,  in  this  present,  accepted  time 
of  the  Lord,  and  whose  characters  are  forming  under 
the  lidit  of  the  revelation  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ.  You 
and  I  are  living,  and  deciding  what  we  will  be,  in  this 
world-period  which  takes  its  date  from  the  birth  of  Jesus 
Christ — this  world-age  through  which  the  Son  of  God 
waits  expecting  until  all  enemies  shall  be  put  under  his 
feet — this  world-age  in  which  his  Gospel  is  to  be  preached 
to  every  creature,  and  which  shall  end  in  his  final  coming 
to  deliver  up  his  kingdom  of  grace  to  the  Father — this 
present  world-age  which,  because  it  is  the  day  of  the  Son 
of  man,  is  also  the  last  day  of  the  world  before  the  day 
of  judgment — this  Christian  world-age  which  is,  as  no 
age  of  the  world  could  have  been  before  Christ  ascended, 
the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  age  of  the 
presence  everywhere  of  the  Spirit  of  Truth :  and  now,  in 
the  preaching  of  the  Cross,  in  the  Christian  church  and 
its  sacraments,  by  the  means  of  grace,  and  through  the 
accumulating  evidences  of  the  Gospel  of  redemption  and 
the  growing  power  of  Christianity  in  the  world,  the  Holy 
Spirit  is  already  convicting  the  world  of  sin,  of  righteous- 
ness, and  of  judgment :  of  sin,  because  sin  in  this  world- 


292  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

age,  if  it  persists,  must  harden  itself  against  God's  love 
into  unbelief  of  heart  in  his  revealed  grace ;  of  righteous- 
ness, because  through  the  exaltation  of  Christ  to  the  right 
hand  of  the  majesty  on  high  God  reveals  the  perfect 
righteousness,  even  the  righteousness  of  love  in  which 
He  has  willed  from  eternity  to  conduct  this  universe  ;  of 
judgment,  because  the  principle  of  sin  has  been  laid 
bare,  and  its  absolute  unworthiness  and  guilt  brought 
out  in  its  rejection  of  the  truth  that  would  have  led  it 
to  repentance,  and  the  love  that  would  have  taken  it  in 
forgiveness  to  its  own  pure  heart. 

The  application  of  this  Scripture  is  one  of  solemn  sig- 
nificance to  ourselves ; — Ave  are  living  in  the  last  days, 
and  there  is  no  world-age  of  fuller  revelation  of  God's 
eternal  purpose  of  grace  to  follow  this  age  of  the  Holy 
Spirit.  Behind  us  is  the  age  of  the  creative  wisdom  of 
God ;  behind  us  is  the  age  of  the  law  and  the  covenant 
of  Jehovah ;  behind  us  is  the  age  of  Messianic  promise. 
Christianity  is  the  latter  day  to  which  prophets  looked 
forward ;  Christianity,  or  the  Messianic  kingdom,  was 
as  the  end  of  the  world  to  the  people  of  Israel.  And 
Avliat  to  them  was  to  be  the  promised  end,  is  behind  us ; 
all  those  ages  of  preparation  the  purpose  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus  has  passed  through;  the  times  of  ignorance  at 
which  God  winked  are  gone  by ;  the  childhood  of  the 
world  is  passed  ;  man  came  to  full  moral  age  and  respon- 
sibility in  the  day  of  Christ.  Behind  us  lie  all  these 
times  of  preparation,  and  those  provisional  seasons  of 
the  law  and  its  schooling ;  and  behind  us,  also,  is  the  age 
of  Christ's  humiliation  and  finished  work  of  redemption  ; 
and,  long  since,  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully  come ; — 


Last  yiidgment — Christian  yudginent.    293 

now  is  the  accepted  time,  when  all  the  Gentiles  to  whom 
the  Gospel  shall  be  preached  must  meet  Him  by  whom 
finally  all  are  to  be  judged ;  now  is  the  accepted  time  of 
human  history ;  now  is  the  day  of  salvation  for  all 
people.  Behind  us  are  those  preliminary  ages,  those  days 
of  divine  preparation  for  our  salvation,  and  before  us  is 
the  end — that  great  day  of  the  harvest  of  history  ;  before 
us  is  the  crisis  which  Christ,  because  he  is  the  Saviour 
of  the  world,  must  bring ;  before  us  the  possibility  of 
the  great  decision ;  before  us  the  open  gate  of  the  mercy 
of  the  Lord,  and  the  necessity  of  determining  whether  or 
not  we  will  have  hearts  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ; — 
and,  beyond  our  decision  of  character,  for  Christ  or 
against  him,  follows  the  final  judgment  of  grace  ! 

This  fact,  consequently,  that  we  are  living  beyond  the 
preparatory  ages  and  provisional  institutions  of  God^s 
plan  of  history,  in  these  latter  days  whose  end  is  the 
final  judgment,  is  a  truth  which  w^ell  may  arouse  the 
indifferent,  and  which  should  make  us  all  realize  the 
great  privilege,  and  the  equally  great  responsibility,  of 
our  present  opportunity  to  gain  a  Christian  character  for 
eternity. 

I  proceed,  therefore,  to  call  your  attention  to  some 
ways  in  which  this  truth  of  the  Christian  judgment  now 
lays  hold  of  our  lives.  I  ask  you  to  notice  right  here 
that  I  am  bringing  to  you  no  mere  theological  specula- 
tion ;  neither  does  the  personal  point  of  the  truth  which 
I  wish  to  enforce  depend  upon  any  doubtful  question 
concerning  the  future  life.  We  are  standing  upon  a 
Biblical  truth,  viz.,  that  this  is  the  day  of  the  Lord,  and 
that  the  day  of  Christ  as  man's  Redeemer  is  the  last  day 


294  T^^^^  Reality  of  Faith. 

of  human  history  which  ends  in  the  final  judgment,  and 
from  the  basis  of  this  truth  of  the  Bible,  in  view  of  this 
final  age  of  the  world,  I  shall  now  urge  only  such 
considerations  as  may  be  drawn  directly  from  the  facts, 
and  are  capable  of  verification  to  a  large  extent  in  the 
experience  of  men  here  and  now. 

First,  then,  I  would  say,  in  this  dispensation  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  every  man  and  woman  must  stand  or  fall 
alone — each  one  for  himself.  It  has  not  always  been  so 
on  earth ;  it  may  not  be  so  in  God's  judgment  of  mercy 
with  all  classes  and  conditions  of  men  now ;  but  it  is  so 
with  us.  Of  old  time  the  child  of  the  Hebrew  parent 
hardly  had  his  individual  rights  and  responsibility ;  the 
children  were  visited  with  the  punishment  of  the  father's 
transgressions ;  the  unit  of  life,  the  unit  by  which  God's 
temporal  judgments  in  the  early  history  of  Israel  must 
be  measured,  was  not  the  individual,  but  the  family.  The 
innocent  must  often  suffer  with  the  guilty ;  whole  fami- 
lies— women  and  children  and  slaves, — whole  tribes  and 
peoples  must  be  sacrificed  in  the  wars  of  the  Jews,  during 
those  preliminary  and  preparatory  judgments  of  our 
world-history  of  sin  and  death.  Such  was  the  early 
military  necessity  of  providence.  But  it  is  not  so  now. 
Since  Christ  came,  the  Spirit  of  God  deals  with  souls  more 
directly,  personally,  and  individually.  No  priesthood 
intervenes ;  men  need  not  go  up  to  Jerusalem  to  worship. 
God's  Spirit  is  in  all  places,  and,  wherever  the  Gospel  is 
preached,  men  may  choose  to  obey  or  disobey  the  word 
of  the  Lord  which  comes  to  them  in  the  name  of  Christ 
as  the  truth  of  the  Spirit  for  their  own  souls.  Of  old 
time  the  hopes  even  of  the  most  pious  Israelites  were 


Last  yiidgmeiit — Christian  Jttdgme^it.   295 

bound  up  in  the  expectation  of  the  people  of  Israel. 
Only  as  members  of  the  theocracy  could  the  Messianic 
glory  become  theirs ;  it  was  the  nation  that  was  to  be 
glorified,  and  the  individual  should  receive  of  its  honor 
and  glory  only  in  and  through  his  connection  by  birth 
and  circumcision,  in  faith,  with  the  kingdom  of  Israel. 
But  Christ  has  individualized  grace.  He  creates,  indeed, 
a  new  society  of  souls.  But  now  through  no  external 
observance  may  we  hope  for  part  in  his  kingdom.  We 
must  be  born  again.  We  cannot  depend  upon  any  out- 
ward fulfillment  of  the  law  and  the  covenant — upon 
no  legal  righteousness ; — no  one  can  be  finally  blessed 
because  of  any  connection  with  any  other  men,  with  any 
chosen  family,  or  with  any  line  of  promise.  Since  Christ 
brought  the  sin  of  this  world  to  its  judgment  by  his 
presence  on  earth,  every  man  of  us  must  meet  personally 
the  crisis  of  character,  and  stand  or  fall  for  himself 
before  God.  Christ  by  his  coming  to  men  calls  men 
ever  to  themselves ;  they  cannot  go  away  from  him  mere 
moral  children  ;  he  calls  to  a  decision,  a  personal  decision ; 
the  soul  comes  to  full  moral  age  before  Jesus  Christ,  and 
chooses  its  own  life.  And  every  time  the  word  of  the 
Spirit  is  brought  home  to  us  through  Christ,  we  become 
by  our  personal  response  riper  for  the  last  judgment. 
So,  then,  under  the  dispensation  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in 
which  we  are  living,  every  one  must  give  an  account 
of  himself.  We  cannot  go  into  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  as  the  Israelites  might  have  hoped  to  go  up  to 
jNIount  Zion,  into  the  Messianic  kingdom,  by  families 
and  by  tribes ;  we  must  go  alone — as  individual  souls 
— every  one  in  the  narrow  way — each  in  the  determina- 


296  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

tiou  of  his  own  heart,  and  to  give  an  account  of  himself 
to  his  God. 

Secondly,  all  of  us  who  are  living  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  Gospel,  and  in  this  dispensation  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  are  forming  our  characters  and  ripening  for 
judgment  in  view  of  the  divinest  motives  to  goodness. 
No  one  of  us  can  grow  to  manhood  now,  and  live, 
and  die,  as  though  Jesus  Christ  had  never  dwelt 
among  men  revealing  the  Father,  as  though  Christ 
had  not  been  crucified,  condemning  by  his  death  the 
sin  of  the  world.  The  life  of  Jesus  Christ  is  as  much 
a  fact  in  our  lives  as  the  sun  is  a  fact  in  our  skies,  and 
no  man,  by  merely  choosing  not  to  regard  it,  can 
make  the  present  fact  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
cease  to  exist  for  him.  The  light  is  shining  now — 
the  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world;  and  though  we  would  hide  from  it, 
we  cannot  conduct  our  business  in  this  Christian  era, 
we  cannot  live  a  day  now,  as  though  the  sun  of  right- 
eousness had  not  risen,  as  though  there  had  never  been 
a  Christ  on  this  earth  from  God  in  heaven.  It  is 
morally  impossible,  in  a  land  girded  and  studded  with 
Christian  churches,  for  any  intelligent  man  to  grow 
up  and  live  without  meeting  before  him  in  his  own 
path,  and  more  than  once,  the  form  of  the  Son  of  man 
— without  being  obliged,  whether  consciously  or  half 
consciously,  yet  really,  to  take  some  personal  posi- 
tion towards  Christ  and  his  cross.  As  matter  of 
obvious  fact,  God  has  so  made  the  life  and  the  death 
of  Christ  a  part  of  modern  history,  and  an  essential 
element  in  the  life   of  the   world   in  which  we  live, 


Last  Judg^nent — CJnnstian  Jtidgment.    297 

that  it  would  be  impossible  to  conceive  that  any  of 
us  could  go  from  any  place  in  this  country  up  through 
death  to  the  bar  of  a  just  and  omniscient  God,  and 
be  fairly  and  thoroughly  judged  by  Him,  without  the 
question  being  asked  as  the  most  decisive  question 
of  our  destiny,  What  account,  in  the  plan  and  pur- 
pose of  your  earth-life  did  you  take  of  Jesus  Christ  ? 
What,  in  the  conduct  of  your  life,  did  you  do  with 
this  Jesus  which  is  called  the  Christ  ? 

Thirdly,  in  this  world-age  of  the  Holy  Spirit  before 
the  day  of  judgment,  we  are  forming  our  characters 
under  the  most  searching  and  decisive  tests.  Con- 
science is  the  first  judge  of  man ;  obedience  to  con- 
science is,  so  far  as  it  goes,  a  determination  of  char- 
acter. The  light  of  nature  is  undoubtedly  light;  it 
brings  out  distinctions  of  colors,  good  and  evil,  in 
human  hearts.  Conscience  pronounces  sin  worthy  of 
punishment ;  the  light  of  nature  is  sufficient  to  reveal 
the  insufficiency  of  our  own  righteousness.  But,  under 
the  law  of  conscience  alone,  no  man  is,  or  can  be,  put 
beyond  the  pale  of  possible  gracious  redemption.  Char- 
acter, under  the  light  of  nature  alone,  cannot  become 
absolutely  hardened  against  mercy,  and  pass,  by  a  natu- 
ral process  only,  beyond  the  moral  possibility  of  super- 
natural redemption.  According  to  the  Scriptures  only 
the  sin  against  the  Holy  Ghost — ^the  sin  of  utter  rejec- 
tion of  the  last,  fullest  revelation  of  God— the  sin 
against  the  Spirit  sent  to  plead  with  the  world  from 
the  cross  of  Christ,— that  alone  is  the  sin  for  which 
prayer  can  no  more  be  made — the  sin  which  hath 
never  forgiveness  either  in  this  world  or  the  world  to 


298  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

come.  For  all  previous  sin — for  all  the  sins  of  the 
ages  before  the  cross — Jesus  could  pray  as  he  gave  up 
the  ghost,  "Father,  forgive  them;  for  they  know  not 
Avhat  they  do."  But  now,  under  the  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  sin  is  not  only  neglect  of  the  light  of 
nature,  not  only  transgression  of  the  law ;  but  it  may  be 
a  turning  from  goodness  itself,  and  rejection  of  the 
revealed  God.  In  proportion  as  the  atoning  love  of 
God  is  made  known,  and  put  away  from  a  soul,  sin  is 
also  striving  against  the  Spirit  of  God.  As  God  reveals 
more  fully  and  more  gloriously  the  principles  of  his 
righteousness  and  the  fullness  of  his  love  in  Christianity, 
in  that  proportion  does  the  sin  of  the  world  grow  worse 
and  more  condemuable,  and  persistence  in  sin  approaches 
the  rejection  of  all  that  God  can  do  to  redeem  a  soul. 
To  all  to  whom  the  love  of  God  and  the  unspeakable 
attractiveness  of  the  righteousness  of  God  are  declared 
in  Jesus  Christ,  the  moral  possibility  is  thereby  opened 
either  of  their  giving  themselves  to  Him  with  all  their 
hearts,  or  of  hardening  themselves  against  Him  with  no 
prospect  of  any  more  attractive  disclosure  of  God's 
goodness  than  is  made  in  Christ,  by  which  to  break  the 
evil  will  which  may  even  now  be  growing  hard  against 
the  supreme  Christian  motive  to  repentance  and  unself- 
ishness. 

Jesus  realized  that  his  presence  upon  earth  brought  to 
men  the  fearful  possibility  of  sinning  hopelessly  against 
God's  very  grace,  and  putting  themselves  beyond  the 
pale  of  his  redemption ;  and  the  knowledge  of  the  fact 
that  his  coming  was,  and  must  prove  to  be,  the  crisis  for 
human  life,  seems  at  times  to  have  weighed  upon  his 


Last  yitdgment — Christian  yicdgment.    299 

spirit  with  a  sadness  beyond  expression.  Thus  he  said 
to  the  Pharisees,  "  I  judge  no  man  ; '' — he  would  not 
judge,  if  he  could  help  judging ;  but  he  remembers  that 
mercy  is  itself  sin's  last  judgment,  and  he  adds,  "  Yea, 
and  if  I  judge,  my  judgment  is  true.''  "  For  I  came 
not  to  judge  the  world ; " — not  for  that,  not  that  he 
might  cast  a  single  soul  into  deeper  condemnation,  had 
he  come  from  the  Father ; — his  whole  sincerity  of  soul 
goes  out  in  that  protestation  :  ^^  For  I  came  not  to  judge 
the  world,  but  to  save  the  world."  But  he  knows  tliat 
rejected  salvation  is  final  judgment — that  redeeming 
love  must  prove  that  to  be  unworthy  of  eternal  life 
which  it  cannot  save; — and  he  adds,  as  the  moral 
nature  of  things  compels  him  to  add,  ^^  He  that  rejecteth 
me,  and  receiveth  not  my  sayings,  hath  one  that  judgeth 
him :  the  word  that  I  spake,  the  same  shall  judge  him 
in  the  last  day."  Jesus,  then,  would  not  judge — but,  if 
rejected,  how  can  he  help  judging?  Rejection  of  the 
supreme  good,  when  that  good  is  fairly  revealed,  is  the 
condemnation  of  the  soul  that  can  reject  it. 

Yet  Jesus  will  wait  expecting  until  the  last  great  day, 
before  his  enemies  shall  be  made  his  footstool,  and  he 
shall  sit  upon  the  judgment-throne.  Then,  after  the 
Christian  era,  shall  be  the  end  of  the  world.  Then,  not 
till  then,  shall  the  crucified,  risen,  and  ascended  Lord 
give  up  his  mediatorial  kingdom  to  the  Father  that  God 
may  be  all  and  in  all.  Then  our  last  judgment  shall  be 
the  disclosure  of  what  we  have  become  in  this  Christian 
era  of  our  opportunity,  and  under  the  dispensation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  There  can  be  no  judgment  more  final 
than  this  last  Christian  judgment  of  character.     He 


300  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

that  hath  the  Son  hath  life ;  he  that  hath  not  the  Son 
hath  not  hfe.  "  I  beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living 
sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your  rea- 
sonable service/' 


XX. 

LOOKING  BACK   UPON  OUR  EARTHLY  LIFE. 

"^nts   \it  5ai&  unto   t^cm,  3E   U\)tl^  5atan  as  Iiigf)tnins  fall   from 
t)tabtn." — LuKEx.  i8. 

These  words  refer  to  a  definite  moment  in  Jesus'  life. 
That  same  hour  in  which  he  sent  forth  the  seventy,  he 
beheld  Satan  fall  from  heaven.  Yet  that  was  a  pro- 
phetic vision  of  the  Lord.  When  he  saw  Satan  falling, 
Jesus  was  in  spirit  above  time,  beholding  as  one  finished 
whole,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  the  history  of 
God's  conquest  of  evil.  While  the  seventy  were  going 
forth  to  win  their  first  unexpected  success  in  his  name, 
the  Lord  in  prophetic  anticipation  was  looking  back 
upon  his  work,  and  theirs,  as  a  work  already  accom- 
plished ;  as  even  the  devils,  to  their  surprise,  began  to  be 
subject  unto  them,  his  Spirit  went  forward  to  the  final 
triumph  of  redemption,  and  as  one  looking  back  from 
its  completion  Jesus  beheld  Satan  fallen.  In  the  joy  of 
that  moment  of  prophetic  faith  Jesus  had  gone  beyond 
his  own  life  of  sacrifice,  beyond  the  conflicts  of  his 
Church,  and  he  was  as  the  Word  with  God  looking  upon 
the  redemption  of  the  world  as  one  completed  fact,  and 
beholding  sin  as  a  power  forever  fallen. 

You  will  observe,  particularly,  this  position  as  of  one 
already  beyond  time  in  which  at  that  moment  our  Lord 
was  standing,  and  beholding  the  eternal  consequences  of 

301 


302  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

his  own  life,  when  he  saw  the  final  fall  of  the  Satanic 
power.  For  my  sermon  depends  upon  the  possibility 
of  our  imitating  in  some  human  measure  this  example 
of  our  Lord,  and  for  moments,  at  least,  of  faith  taking 
like  him  positions  above  ourselves,  as  though  we  were 
already  looking  down  upon  our  own  earth-life.  There 
is  both  an  imitable  and  an  inimitable  element  in  every 
attitude  of  Jesus,  and  in  the  various  incidents  of  his 
experience  of  our  world.  He  is  in  all  things  our 
example;  and  we  are,  therefore,  to  approach  him, 
throughout  his  conversation  with  men,  expecting  to  find 
in  his  experience  of  our  life  even  up  to  his  cross  some- 
thing in  which  he  is  as  one  of  us,  and  in  which  we  also 
may  be  as  the  Master  was  in  the  world.  But  the  more 
we  seek  and  find  these  imitable  elements  in  Jesus,  the 
stronger,  also,  will  grow  the  impression  that  there  was 
in  him  something  beyond  all  human  imitation  —  a 
diviner  something  in  him  pervading  his  life,  and  to  be 
recognized  even  in  its  most  human  incidents.  So  in  the 
spiritual  exaltation,  to  which  our  text  bears  witness, 
there  was  manifestly  a  diviner  consciousness  and  certainty 
of  vision  than  we  can  attain  in  our  best  moments  of 
faith ; — not  as  the  Master  can  we,  being  in  the  spirit, 
put  this  world  at  once  beneath  our  feet,  and  stand 
beyond  history  in  God's  eternal  triumph  over  sin.  Not 
thus,  as  the  Christ  from  God,  can  the  spirit  of  man  be 
transported  wholly  from  the  midst  of  the  present  into  the 
eternal  world,  to  lie  at  rest  among  the  fulfilled  decrees 
of  perfect  Love,  looking  back  upon  the  future  as  though 
it  were  already  past,  and  beholding  the  fallen  Satan. 
We  must  recognize,  then,  the  more  than  human  con- 


Looking  Back  upon  oitr  Earthly  Life.   303 

sciousness  and  diviner  certainty  indicated  by  this  spirit- 
ual experience  of  Jesus ;  nevertheless,  we  may  find  in 
it  something,  also,  for  our  imitation.  By  availing  our- 
selves of  such  powers  of  faith  as  we  do  have,  we  may 
seek  to  throw  ourselves  forward  beyond  our  own  lives 
in  this  world,  and  to  look  as  from  some  higher  position 
out  among  the  eternal  realities  back  upon  these  present 
scenes.  We  may  gain  thus  truer  views  of  what  is  the 
use  and  purport  of  this  span  of  our  life  between  the 
cradle  and  the  grave. 

My  sermon  begins  by  asking  two  things  of  any  who 
would  profit  by  it.  It  asks  you  to  take  for  this  hour 
at  least  your  own  faiths  for  granted.  The  interro- 
gation-point has,  indeed,  its  rights  in  the  pulpit ;  and 
some  of  us  are  born  with  a  disposition  to  punctuate 
everything  experienced  in  this  world  with  an  interroga- 
tion-point. But  I  do  not  raise  just  now  any  of  those 
questions  which  life  is  so  often  asking  of  our  hearts.  I 
do  not  seek  now  to  look  searchingly  through  those  shad- 
ows of  doubt  which,  although  they  sometimes  fall  thick 
and  dark  across  our  thoughts,  are  only  the  shadows  of 
earthly  things,  and  which  show,  as  the  shadow  proves 
the  existence  of  a  sun,  that  there  must  be  beyond  them, 
and  above,  the  true  Light  in  which  we  shall  see  light. 
I  ask  you,  rather,  for  this  hour  at  least,  to  believe  your 
own  souls,  and  to  take  your  own  spiritual  faiths  for 
granted.  Give  yourselves  up  to  them,  and  let  them  lead 
you  whither  they  will.  Then  my  sermon  makes  this 
second  requirement  of  any  who  would  profit  by  it.  It 
asks  them  to  use  freely  and  boldly  the  Christian  imagina- 
tion in  aid  of  faith. 


304  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

Throwing  ourselves  forward  in  the  pure  imaginations 
of  faith  into  the  world  to  come,  let  us  seek  to  look  back 
and  down  upon  this  world  as  though  we  already  were 
beyond  it.  Surrendering  ourselves  to  our  faith,  and 
with  our  powers  of  spiritual  imagination  lent  to  the  aid 
of  our  faith,  let  us  seek  humbly  to  imitate  our  Master, 
and  look  upon  our  world  as  he  looked  upon  this  earth, 
when,  as  from  a  position  in  eternity,  he  saw  Satan  fall 
from  heaven. 

In  the  first  place,  if  we  look  upon  our  own  lives  as 
one  looks  back  upon  a  way  already  trodden,  and  a  w^ork 
already  accomplished,  we  shall  gain  a  truer  sense  of  the 
proportions  of  things.  If  we  can  succeed  in  transporting 
ourselves  beyond  the  present,  and  regarding  its  occupa- 
tions as  already  past ;  if  we  can  draw  back,  as  it  were,  in 
our  own  souls  from  the  events  of  now  and  here,  and 
regard  our  whole  life,  past,  present,  and  future,  as  one 
undivided  and  completed  whole ;  then  we  cannot  fail  to 
gain  a  more  just  estimate  of  the  real  proportions  of  events 
in  our  lives,  and  to  correct,  as  in  a  large  view  from 
beyond,  our  present  sense  of  the  relative  importance  of 
things.  And  just  this  true  sense  of  proportion  in  life  is 
hard  for  us  to  keep  in  the  nearness  of  present  things ; 
yet  it  is  essential  to  large,  happy  living  that  we  should 
gain  and  keep  it.  In  order  that  we  may  do  this  let  us 
take  moments  even  in  the  midst  of  duties  or  of  cares  when 
deliberately  and  thoughtfully  we  strive,  as  we  are  doing 
now,  to  throw  ourselves  forward  tlirough  the  years,  and 
beyond  our  own  death,  and,  as  from  above,  survey  the 
event,  the  trouble,  the  desire  which  now  may  seem  to  us 
so  imperious,  so  strange,  or  so  important.     What  as  we 


Looking  Back  upon  our  Earthly  Life.     305 

look  back  from  beyond  the  day  of  our  own  death  is  our 
life  ?  What  the  relative  lieights  and  depths,  the  com- 
parative lights  and  shadows,  of  the  things  among  which 
we  are  now  in  our  lives  ? 

Some  of  you  here  present  may  have  sailed  some  summer 
afternoon  from  Mt.  Desert  towards  the  open  sea.  You 
noticed,  as  you  floated  out  of  the  harbor,  and  looked  back 
from  the  sea,  that  the  mountains  did  not  stand  in  the 
same  groupings  quite,  and  no  longer  showed  towards  one 
another  the  same  magnitudes,  as  they  seemed  to  do  when 
you  were  among  them,  and  looked  up  to  them  from  the 
foot  of  some  near  height  which  rose  just  before  you. 
That  which  then  seemed  the  highest  becomes  a  lesser  hill 
as  you  measure  it  from  your  boat  at  a  little  distance  off; 
and  when  you  are  far  enough  out  at  sea  to  take  the 
whole  island  in  your  eye,  then  the  mountains  stand  before 
you  as  God  made  them,  each  in  its  own  place  and  pro- 
portion, and  you  kno^v  which  is  the  lesser  cliff,  and  which 
is  the  greatest  of  all.  And  in  the  retrospect,  also,  rough 
places  grow  smooth,  the  fissures  in  the  cliffs,  across  which 
you  could  hardly  find  your  way,  are  seen  to  be  but  reliefs 
of  shadow  upon  the  sunny  face  of  the  rock ;  the  thought 
of  their  brokenness  and  hardness  vanishes,  as  your  eye 
follows  "svith  delight  the  lines  of  the  great  picture  which 
you  look  at  under  the  sail  from  out  at  sea ;  while  over 
all  the  storm-beaten  crags  and  heights  there  falls  a  mellow 
and  purpling  light.  Oh,  my  friends,  be  sure  whenever 
we  shall  be  far  enough  out  in  eternity  to  look  back  and 
see  our  lives  as  one  whole,  we  shall  understand  better 
God's  grouping  of  events  in  them ;  we  shall  know  then 
how  all  the  while  He  who  sees  the  end  from  the  begin- 


3o6  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

ning,  and  beholds  all  earthly  things  framed  in  the  quiet 
charity  of  heaven,  has  looked  in  the  good  pleasure  of  his 
love  upon  the  history  of  this  world,  which  to  us  in  the 
midst  of  it  seems  often  so  broken,  overshadowed,  and 
wild  !  And  certainly  the  more  freedom  of  faith  we  can 
exercise  in  letting  our  hearts  sail  away  from  the  present 
and  the  near,  taking  in  as  one  view  our  own  past,  pres- 
ent, and  future,  and  contemplating  our  life  as  one  divinely 
ordered  whole  of  existence ;  the  happier  will  our  thought 
of  life  be,  and  the  more  just  our  estimate  of  what  things 
are  small  or  great  in  our  lives. 

In  the  second  place,  in  so  far  as  we  can  put  ourselves 
in  the  exercise  of  our  own  faiths  beyond  this  life,  we  shall 
gain  in  many  respects  a  different,  and  in  all  a  more  just 
estimate  of  our  own  real  attainments.  We  shall  see  more 
clearly  what  we  may  expect  to  win  for  ourselves  from 
life.  Look  down  now  upon  what  you  have  made,  or  are 
making,  for  yourselves  in  this  world  from  this  higher 
position  after  your  own  death.  Measure  what  you  are 
seeking  to  attain  by  its  worth  as  judged  by  that  estimate 
from  beyond.  From  this  point  of  view  let  us  seek  to 
determine  what  are  the  real  attainments  which  a  human 
being  may  reach  in  this  world.  The  difference  between 
a  man's  fictitious  and  a  man's  real  attainments  may  be 
measured  by  conceiving  that  man  to  have  come  through 
death  to  his  immortality,  and  then  by  asking  what  can 
we  imagine  him  to  have  in  himself  which  he  may  keep 
there,  as  the  result  of  all  his  toil  here.  That  artisan,  for 
example,  has  stood  up  faithfully  for  years  to  his  work. 
He  dies.  The  arm  loses  its  strength,  and  the  hand  its 
cunning.     What  can  he  have  gained  by  years  of  faithful 


Looking  Back  upon  our  Earthly  Life,    307 

work  in  making  square-joints,  honest  insides,  or  lines  true 
to  an  infinitesimal  ?  What  can  the  workman  be  con- 
ceived as  keeping  hereafter  as  the  reward  of  all  his  labor 
under  the  sun  ?  Not  the  eye,  not  the  arm  of  flesh ;  yet 
the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection  stands  in  the  Scrip- 
tures as  the  pledge  that  our  life  here  and  hereafter  is  to 
be  in  all  its  powers  one  continuous  life ;  and  though  this 
body  shall  return  to  dust,  the  discipline  and  capacity  of 
the  man,  which  is  to  be  gained  through  the  right  exercise 
even  of  these  bodily  powers,  is  something  which  may  count 
in  the  life  of  man  forever.  Even  in  the  honest  and  best 
exercise  of  his  bodily  senses  a  man  may  be  training  him- 
self for  the  quick  and  skilled  use  of  those  powers  of 
spiritual  embodiment  which  shall  succeed  these  moilal 
powers.  That  artist,  for  instance,  who  one  evening  as 
we  gained  the  crest  of  a  hill,  with  an  exclamation  of 
delight,  counted  instantly  five  different  hues  upon  the 
horizon  where  my  duller  eye  had  only  seen  at  first  glance 
one  resplendence  of  the  setting  sun,  may  have  gained  in 
that  quick  sense  of  color  a  power  which  shall  be  carried 
on  as  a  possession  of  the  soul  into  the  spiritual  body, 
enabling  that  trained  artist's  spirit  hereafter  to  see  with 
instantaneous  and  enhanced  delight  the  hues  and  harmo- 
nies of  color  of  the  new  heavens  and  the  new  earth. 

Hence  I  venture  to  say  that  the  training  and  discipline 
of  any  power  in  the  honest  work  of  a  lifetime  may  be  so 
much  real  attainment  for  immortality — so  much  gain 
carried  in  the  man  himself  through  death  into  the  world 
of  larger  opportunity.  A  man  therefore  should  perform 
all  his  labor  on  this  earth  not  as  though  what  he  does 
now  is  all  of  it,  but  as  an  heir  of  immortality. 


o 


08  The  Reality  of  Faith. 


Take  another  example  from  the  business  of  men.  A 
merchant  spends  his  powers  in  amassing  a  fortune.  Put 
that  merchant  forward  in  your  spiritual  imagination  of 
him  beyond  the  years.  Look  back  upon  his  whole  life 
from  some  point  after  death.  He  lives  on.  What  is  his 
gain  from  the  world  ?  His  property  has  been  divided. 
Another  name  is  upon  the  sign  over  his  store.  Other 
customers  than  he  once  recognized  buy  at  the  counter  where 
he  has  been  long  forgotten.  What  has  his  life  profited  him 
under  the  sun  ?  I  am  not  asking  just  now  of  his  personal 
character  and  final  judgment  before  God.  I  am  asking 
of  his  possible  attainments ; — what  has  that  man  by  any 
possibility  carried  from  the  work  of  his  life  beyond  the 
years?  what  lasting  attainments  has  he  made  in  that  store 
from  which  one  day  he  went  home  to  die?  It  is  certain 
that  he  brought  nothing  into  this  world,  and  that  he 
could  have  carried  nothing  out.  No  thing; — not  a 
creditor's  promise  to  pay;  not  a  mortgage  upon  any 
earthly  thing ;  not  a  single  thing  from  all  his  merchan- 
dise and  all  his  gains !  But  shall  an  honest,  able 
life  of  business  count  then  for  nothing  among  the 
real  attainments  of  immortality?  Nay;  that  man  has 
carried  something  in  himself  beyond  the  grave.  That 
faculty  of  quick  judgment ;  that  power  of  broad,  clear 
comprehension  of  a  situation ;  that  strength  of  pur- 
pose, that  firmness  of  will,  that  promptness  of  decision, 
that  capacity  for  self-denial  and  self-restraint ;  that  habit 
of  moderation  in  the  midst  of  abundance ;  tliat  human 
kindliness,  helpfulness,  and  charity,  also, — these  quali- 
ties which  have  been  both  the  means  and  the  results  of  his 
success  on  earth,  these  attainments  of  the  man,  are  not 


Looking  Back  upon  our  Earthly  Life.     309 

for  nothing  in  the  judgments  of  eternity.  Death  shall 
not  rob  the  man  of  these ;  they  are  in  him,  and  of  him — 
his  personal  worth — and  they  do  not  belong  to  the  mor- 
tality which  returns  to  the  dust.  They  are  powers,  also, 
for  other  worlds,  and  capacities  formed  here  for  life  in 
other  spheres. 

Or  that  scholar  who  has  followed  truth,  though  at 
times  he  knew  not  whether  truth  were  a  phantom 
mocking  him  from  out  the  universal  night,  or  whether 
the  truth  he  thought  he  saw  was  a  glimmering  through 
this  twilight-world  of  the  glory  of  the  face  of  God  ; — 
that  scholar  shall  leave  his  books  of  science  behind  him, 
and  as  he  looks  back  from  beyond  the  gropings  of  his 
life-long  studies  he  may  laugh  at  the  folly  of  all  his 
wisdom  among  the  children  of  this  world ;  but  not  for 
nought  has  been  the  devotion  of  a  soul  to  the  truth. 
That  longing  love  of  truth,  that  joy  of  his  soul  in  truth 
believed,  and  willingness  to  suffer  for  truth  found,  shall 
prove  his  enlargement  of  mind  for  the  knowledge  of 
eternity.  If  in  aught  he  was  tempted  by  fear  of  con- 
sequence, or  by  love  of  applause,  or  by  pride  of  in- 
tellect, or  by  clamor  of  the  people,  from  the  love  of 
truth  and  of  God,  that  shall  prove  indeed  his  loss  and 
failure  of  mind  for  the  revelations  of  the  other  world ; 
but  his  love  of  truth,  and  his  inner  faitli  in  it  kept  ever 
sacred,  his  life-long  willingness  to  be  taught  of  God,  and 
openness  of  mind  to  all  messengers  of  the  eternal  Truth, 
come  they  from  earth,  or  sky,  or  the  hearts  of  his  fellow- 
men, — this  shall  be  the  scholar^s  reward — his  disciplined 
and  exultant  power  of  mind  to  comprehend  all  mys- 
teries, and  to  sound  the  depths,  and  to  sing  praises  from 


3IO  The  Reality  of  Faith, 

the  heights,  after  he  shall  have  gone  hence  to  be  taught 
by  the  Lord's  angels  who  excel  in  strength  to  behold  all 
things  in  the  one  true  light. 

Whatever  may  be  your  personal  circles  of  concern  in 
life,  whatever  the  occupations  in  which  providence  may 
circumscribe  your  present,  if  you  would  understand  what 
may  be  your  permanent  gain  from  life,  and  what  are  the 
personal  attainments  which  you  are  really,  that  is,  eter- 
nally, making  now,  let  me  invite  you,  in  the  exercise  of 
your  Christian  faith,  boldly  at  times  to  run  forward  before 
your  years,  to  seek,  if  only  in  spiritual  imagination,  some 
point  of  view  out  in  eternity  from  which  to  judge  what 
you  are  doing  and  gaining  now.  For  our  belief  in  our 
immortality,  when  we  make  earnest  with  it,  and  really 
accept  it,  is  not  a  mere  dream  of  shadowy  existence  after 
death  ;  nor  is  it  a  general  and  vague  expectation  of  a  life 
so  utterly  unlike  and  broken  oif  from  the  life  we  are  now 
living  that  what  we  are  doing  and  gaining  here  and 
now  counts  for  nothing  hereafter.  Not  that  is  Christ's 
revelation  of  the  world  to  come  !  Not  such  is  the  full 
Christian  expectation  of  life  beyond  death  !  The  con- 
nection between  the  hereafter  and  the  here,  between  the 
now  and  then,  is  organic,  vital,  inevitable.  It  is  close  as 
the  connection  between  school-time  and  manhood.  It  is 
a  continuity  of  existence  woven  of  the  tissues  of  the  soul, 
and  strong  as  the  loves  of  human  hearts.  Jesus,  in  all 
the  essential  elements,  powers,  and  characteristics  of  his 
humanity,  is  the  same  man  Jesus  the  day  after  as  the 
day  before  the  resurrection.  Turn  utter  sceptic  if  you 
can  and  must,  and  say,  I  die;  but  when  we  take  our 
natural  faith  in  our  own  spiritual  birthright  for  granted, 


Looking  Back  upon  our  Earthly  Life.     3 1 1 

and  when  we  say  we  believe  the  Gospel  of  the  resurrec- 
tion, let  us  not  then  make  a  half-truth  of  it,  and  live  as 
though  our  immortality  were  only  some  vague,  vast, 
formless  future  hope,  and  not  a  present,  practical  fact. 

Jesus  lived  for  two  worlds  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
He  was  the  son  of  man  who  was  in  heaven,  as  the 
Scripture  says.  All  true,  deep  life  must  have  something 
of  the  sense  of  heaven  in  it  as  a  present  fact.  Certainly 
the  power  of  sustained  enthusiasm  for  all  work,  the 
capacity  of  growing  hopefulness,  and  the  charm  of  per- 
petual youthfulness  through  life,  must  be  the  present 
power  of  our  immortality  in  us  and  over  us.  And  no 
man  can  rightly  estimate  his  own  striving  in  this  world, 
or  measure,  as  he  should,  his  own  attainments,  unless 
he  takes  also  this  larger  view,  and  wdll  look  honestly 
down  upon  himself,  as  one  might  look  back  from  beyond 
his  own  grave. 

We  are  led,  thus,  to  the  third  remark  that  only  as  we 
strive  to  throw  ourselves  forward  into  the  life  beyond, 
and  to  consider  our  whole  existence  here  as  it  is  in  its 
relation  to  the  man  and  his  life  then  and  there,  can  we 
form  a  safe  estimate  of  the  worths  of  things.  Such  and 
such  opportunities  are  brought  now  within  reach  of  a 
young  man  or  woman.  What  are  they  worth?  So 
many  weeks  or  mouths  of  study,  of  training,  of  perse- 
verance in  some  choice,  will  bring  such  and  such  good — 
professional  success,  social  success,  pleasant  days,  agreea- 
ble friends,  so  much  prospect  and  joy  of  home,  and 
healthful,  quiet  age.  I  am  not  questioning  the  wisdom 
or  the  need  of  these  common  estimates  of  the  worth  of 
life.     It  is  good  for  us,  at  times,  to  make  them.     There 


312    '  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

are  crises  when  we  must  put  our  lives  into  honest  earthly 
balances,  and  weigh  them.  But  Ave  are  capable  of  meas- 
uring things  by  a  truer  standard,  and  of  weighing  life — 
the  whole  of  it,  and  all  things  which  it  contains — in  a 
larger  scale.  Run  merrily  in  imagination  on  through 
your  years.  And,  following  Christ,  and  so  with  untrou- 
bled heart,  go  happily  also  down  through  the  valley  at 
the  close,  and  venture  in  the  thoughts  of  your  hearts  out 
into  the  unobstructed  breadth  and  distances  of  the  life 
beyond.  Then  turn  and  look  back,  and  consider  again 
your  estimates  of  things.  What  as  you  look  back,  as 
one  already  beyond  this  little  life,  are  the  real  worths  of 
things  ?  their  final  and  unalterable  worths  ?  If  our  own 
deeper,  truer  instincts  should  fail  us  here,  we  have  the 
sure  word  of  God.  Jesus  Christ  who  could  easily  put 
himself  in  the  spirit  beyond  this  world  and  its  history 
— who  already  when  among  men  began  to  judge  this 
world  as  though  the  last  day  were  present  and  the  Soil 
of  man  upon  the  throne — Jesus  Christ  left  no  doubt  as 
to  what  in  the  retrospect  of  eternity  is  of  worth  before 
God.  It  is  the  new  heart.  It  is  the  soul  born  of  the 
Spirit  of  God.  It  is  the  regenerated  man.  The  image 
of  Christ  in  a  human  heart  is  the  gain  of  eternal  worth. 
The  Gospel-measure  of  worths  is  Christ-likeness.  And 
all  other  attainments  shall  fall  short,  if  they  are  not 
made  rich  unto  God  through  the  grace  of  Christ. 
Given  the  new,  right  heart,  and  even  now,  as  one  looks 
forward  to  his  own  death,  he  may  think.  That,  also,  some 
day  it  will  be  pleasant  for  me  to  remember ! 

Suffer  me  once  more,  before  I  close,  to  commend  to 
you  this   Christlike   habit,  so  far  as  by  faith  we  may 


Looking  Back  tcpon  our  Earthly  Life.    313 

imitate  it,  of  putting  ourselves  for  moments  at  least  far 
away  from  our  own  present,  and  looking  down  upon  our- 
selves, as  it  were,  from  some  higher  sphere.  For  there  are 
some  special  times  and  seasons  when  a  moment  of  down- 
looking,  as  from  above,  upon  ourselves,  may  be  of  the 
greatest  benefit  or  comfort.  In  the  midst  of  the  vexa- 
tions and  petty  annoyances  of  things,  it  is  good,  like 
Jesus,  to  go  off  for  a  moment,  and  to  be  among  the  stars. 
With  the  angry  word  rising  to  the  lips,  it  is  good  for 
us  if,  for  an  instant,  we  can  succeed  in  being  in  the  spirit 
as  on  the  Lord's  day.  The  mere  effort  to  rise  out  of  the 
present,  and  to  take  the  large,  far  look,  gives  an  inward 
command  of  soul  over  tilings  before  us,  a  calmness  for 
trial,  a  strength  for  emergency,  a  courage  for  danger,  a 
heart  even  for  death,  such  as  can  be  won  in  no  other  way. 
And  not  only  in  times  of  temptation,  of  stirring  passion, 
or  of  difficult  duty,  do  we  need  this  spiritual  disenthral- 
ment  from  the  present,  if  only  for  moments  of  prayer, 
in  order  that  as  sons  of  God  we  may  quit  ourselves  like 
men.  There  are  also  common  human  states  and  con- 
ditions which  are  neither  altogether  happy  nor  safe  for 
those  who  are  never  able  nor  willing  to  judge  themselves 
and  others  as  though  life  were  past,  and  the  hour  for  the 
final  thought  had  come.  Thus,  equally  in  success  or  in 
adversity,  do  we  need  to  rise  above  ourselves  in  this  larger 
judgment  of  our  present.  Certainly  in  adversity,  if  a 
man  is  not  merely  to  set  his  teeth,  and  harden  his  heart 
against  fate !  And  equally  in  prosperity  is  this  larger 
estimate  of  our  life,  as  from  another  world,  needed. 
Success  is  a  safe  happiness  to  the  Christian  man  who  can 
look  down  upon  it  as  from  out  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 


314  The  Reality  of  Faith. 

Success  is  a  danger  and  snare  of  soul  to  that  man  who  is 
not  himself  already  in  his  heart  above  it.  There  is  a 
Christian  view  of  success  which  may  render  it  both  safe 
and  pleasant  for  any  one  who  has  done  any  good  deed 
to  rejoice  heartily  as  unto  the  Lord  in  his  own  work. 
It  is  the  view  in  which  one  stands  not  alone,  rejoicing  in 
himself,  but  in  which  he  sees  himself  to  be  but  one  of  a 
large  and  blessed  company  of  God's  servants,  by  whom 
God's  will  is  to  be  done  on  earth  and  in  heaven.  There 
is  possible  a  broad  and  generous  joy  in  one's  own  work 
and  life,  in  which  we  go  out  of  ourselves,  blending  our 
thanksgivings  with  the  triumphs  of  all  good  men,  and 
finding  our  lives  to  be  part  and  portion  of  the  universal 
gladness  of  God's  saints.  It  is  always  safe  for  us  to 
think  of  ourselves  and  our  work,  and  our  own  position 
in  the  world,  if  we  are  careful  not  to  look  down  and  to 
measure  ourselves  merely  by  our  shadows  on  things  close 
at  hand — our  enlarged  and  unreal  selves, — if  we  think 
rather  of  ourselves  as  we  may  hope  some  day  to  look  back 
over  our  lives,  when  from  beyond  death  we  shall  see  how 
all  along  God's  strong  purpose  ran  before  us,  and  his 
angels  had  charge  over  us,  and  the  good  which  we  may 
have  done,  or  the  success  in  which  we  may  have  rejoiced, 
y»^as  but  our  part  in  the  good  gift  and  the  perfect  boon 
which  come  from  above. 

This  position,  finally,  as  of  one  looking  back  upon 
this  world,  which  we  all  need  sometimes  to  take  in  the 
Christian  imaginations  of  faith,  is  the  position  from 
which  in  a  little  while  we  must  be  judgi^ng  all  things 
both  in  life  and  death.  Our  whole  life  erelong  shall  be 
one  finished  picture  in  the  retrospect.     And  may  it  lie 


Looking  Back  upon  our  Earthly  Life,    315 

then  behind  us  in  the  softening,  hallowing  light  of 
God's  grace  !  By  the  grace  of  God,  the  penitent,  con- 
verted man,  even  now  judging  himself  as  from  out  the 
hereafter,  as  Christ  did  the  world,  may  say  : — From  my 
life  I  saw  sin  falling ;  from  the  heaven  of  my  desires  I 
beheld  Satan  fallen  ; — Behold  God  alone  is  reigning. 


THE   END. 


Old  Faiths  in  New  Light 

BY 

NEWMAN    SMYTH, 

Author    of    **  The    Religious    Feeling.'*'' 


One  Volume,  12mo,  cloth,        -        -         -         $1.B0. 


This  work  aims  to  meet  a  growing  need  by  gathering  materials  of 
faith  which  have  been  quarried  by  many  specialists  in  their  own  depart- 
ments of  Biblical  study  and  scientific  research,  and  by  endeavoring  to 
put  these  results  of  recent  scholarship  together  according  to  one  leading 
idea  in  a  modern  construction  of  old  faith.  Mr,  Smyth's  book  is  remark- 
able no  less  for  its  learning  and  wide  acquaintance  with  prevailing  modes 
of  thought,  than  for  its  fairness  and  judicial  spirit. 


CRITICAL  NOTICES. 


"The  author  is  logical  and  therefore  clear.  He  also  is  master  of  a  singularly 
attractive  literary  style.  Few  writers,  whose  books  come  under  our  eye,  succeed  in 
treating  metaphysical  and  philosophical  themes  in  a  manner  at  once  so  forcible  and  so 
interesting.  We  speak  strongly  about  this  book,  because  we  think  it  exceptionally 
valuable.  It  is  just  such  a  book  as  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  all  intelligent  men  and 
women  who  have  received  an  education  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  read  intelligently 
about  such  subjects  as  are  discussed  herein,  and  the  number  of  such  persons  is  very 
much  larger  than  some  people  \.h\nk"—CongregntioHalisi. 

"  We  have  before  had  occasion  to  notice  the  force  and  elegance  of  this  writer,  and 
his  new  book  shows  scholarship  even  more  advanced.  *  *  *  When  we  say,  with 
some  knowledge  of  how  much  is  undertaken  by  the  saying,  that  there  is  prob.Tbly  no  book 
of  moderate  compass  which  combines  m  greater  degree  clearness  of  style  with  pruiundity 
of  subject  and  of  reasoning,  we  fulfil  simple  duty  to  an  author  whose  success  is  all  the 
more  marked  and  gratifying  from  the  multitude  of  kindred  attempts  with  which  we  have 
been  flooded  from  all  .sorts  o{  \t^ns."  —Presbyterian. 

"The  book  impresses  us  as  clear,  cogent  and  helpful,  as  vigorous  in  style  as  it  is 
honest  in  purpose,  and  calculated  to  render  valuable  service  m  showmg  that  religion  and 
science  are  not  antagonists  but  allies,  and  that  both  lead  up  toward  the  one  God.  We 
fancy  that  a  good  many  readers  of  this  volume  will  entertam  toward  the  author  a  feeling 
of  sincere  personal  gratitude." — Boston  Journal. 

"  On  the  whole,  we  do  not  know  of  a  book  which  may  better  be  commended  to 
thoughtful  persons  whose  minds  have  been  unsettled  by  objections  of  modern  thought. 
It  will  be  found  a  wholesome  work  for  every  minister  in  the  land  to  read." 

— F.xaviiner  and  Chronicle, 

"  It  is  a  long  time  since  we  have  met  with  an  abler  or  fresher  theological  treatise 
than  Old  Faiths  in  Neiv  Light,  by  Newman  Smyth,  an  author  who  in  his  work  on 
"The  Religious  Feeling"  has  already  shown  ability  as  an  expounder  of  Christian 
doctrine."  —lndef>endent. 


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OUTLINES   OF   PRIMITIVE  BELIEF 

among  the  Indo-European  Eacesi 

By    CHARLES    FRANCIS    KEARY,    M.A,, 

of  ike  British  Museum. 


One  vol,  croivn  8vo,,         -  -  -  -         $2»50, 

Mr.  Keary's  Book  is  not  simply  a  series  of  essays  in  comparative  myth- 
ology, it  is  a  history  of  the  legendary  beliefs  of  the  Indo-European  races 
drawn  from  their  language  and  literature.  Mr.  Keary  has  no  pet  theory  to 
establish  ;  he  proceeds  in  the  spirit  of  the  inquirer  after  truth  simply,  and 
his  book  is  a  rare  example  of  patient  research  and  unbiased  opinion  in  a  most 
fascinating  field  of  exploration. 

"  We  have  an  important  and  singularly  interesting  contribution  to  our  knowledge 
of  pre-his'tbric  creeds  in  the  Outlines  of  pre-hisioric  Belief  among  the  Indo-European 
Haces,  by  Mr.  C.  F.  Keary,  of  the  British  Museum.  No  contemporary  essayist  in 
the  field  of  comparative  mythology — and  we  do  not  except  Max  Miiller — has  known 
how  to  embellish  and  illumine  a  work  of  scientific  aims  and  solid  worth  with  so  much 
imaginative  power  and  literary  charm.  There  are  chapters  in  this  volume  that  are  as 
persuasive  as  a  paper  of  Matthew  Arnold's,  as  delightful  as  a  poem.  The  author  is 
not  only  a  trained  inquirer  but  he  presents  the  fruits  of  his  research  with  the  skill  and 
felicity  of  an  artist." — Ne^n  York  ^un. 

"Mr.  Keary,  having  unusual  advantages  in  the  British  Museum  for  studying 
comparative  philology,  has  gone  through  all  the  authorities  concerning  Hindoo, 
Greek,  early  Norse,  modern  European,  and  other  forms  of  faith  in  their  early  stages, 
and  there  has  never  before  been  so  thorough  and  so  captivating  an  exposition  of  them 
as  that  given  in  this  book." — Philadelphia  Bulletin. 

THE  DAWN  OF  HISTORY~ 

AN  INTRODUCTION  TO  PRE-HISTORIC  STUDY. 
Edited  by  C,  F.   KEARY,  M.A., 

OF   THE    BRITISH    MUSEUM. 


One  Volume,  12nio.,  _  -  -  $1.2B. 

This  work  treats  successive'y  of  the  earliest  traces  of  man  in  the  re- 
mains discovered  in  caves  or  Isewhere  in  different  parts  of  Europe  ;  of 
language,  its  growth,  and  the  story  it  tells  of  the  pre  historic  users  of  it ;  of 
the  races  of  mankind,  early  social  life,  the  religions,  mythologies,  and  folk- 
tales of  mankind,  and  of  the  history  of  writmg.  A  list  of  authorities  is 
appended,  and  an  index  has  been  prepared  specially  for  this  edition. 


"  The  book  may  be  heartily  rc:.ommended  as  probably  the  most  satisfactory 
summary  of  the  subject  that  there  is." — Nation. 

"  A  fascinating  manual,  without  a  vestige  of  the  dullness  usually  charged  against 
scientific  works.  .  .  „  In  its  way,  the  work  is  a  model  of  what  a  popular  scientific 
work  should  be ;  it  is  readable,  it  is  easily  understood,  and  its  style  is  simple,  yet  dig- 
nified, avoiding  equally  the  affection  of  the  nursery  and  of  the  laboratory." — 

Bo:: ton  Sat.  Eve.  Gazette. 

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743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


THEBEGIiNNINGSOFHISTORY 

According  to  the  Bible  and  the  Traditions  of  the  Oriental  Peoples.  From 
the  Creation  of  Man  to  the  Deluge.  By  Francois  Lenormant, 
Professor  of  Archoeology  at  the  Mational  Library  of  France,  etc. 
(Translated  from  the  Second  French  Edition).  With  an  introduction 
by  Francis  Brown,  Associate  Professor  in  Biblical  Philology, 
Union  Theological  Seminary. 

$2.50. 


"  What  should  we  see  in  the  first  chapters  of  Genesis  ?  '*  writes  M.  Lenor- 
mant in  his  preface — "A  revealed  narrative,  or  a  human  tradition,  gathered 
up  for  preservation  by  inspired  writers  as  the  oldest  memory  of  their  race  ? 
This  is  the  problem  which  I  have  been  led  to  examine  by  comparing  the  nar- 
rative of  the  Bible  with  those  which  were  current  among  the  civilized  peo- 
ples of  most  ancient  origin  by  which  Israel  was  surrounded,  and  from  the 
midst  of  which  it  came." 

The  book  is  not  more  erudite  than  it  is  absorbing  in  its  interest.  It  has 
had  an  immense  influence  upon  contemporary  thought  ;  and  has  approached 
its  task  with  an  unusual  mingling  of  the  reverent  and  the  scientific  spirit. 


"  That  the  '  Oriental  Peoples  '  had  legends  on  the  Creation,  the  Fall  of  Man,  the 
Deluge,  and  other  primitive  events,  there  is  no  denying.  Nor  is  there  any  need  of 
denying  it,  as  this  admirable  volume  shows.  Mr.  Lenormant  is  not  only  a  believer 
in  revelation,  but  a  devout  confessor  of  what  came  by  Moses  ;  as  well  as  of  what  came 
bv  Christ.  In  this  explanation  of  Chaldean,  Babylonian,  Assyrian  and  Phenician 
tradition,  he  discloses  a  prodigality  of  thought  and  skill  allied  to  great  variety  of  pur- 
suit, and  diligent  manipulation  of  what  he  has  secured.  He  '  spoils  the  Egyptians ' 
by  boldly  using  for  Christian  purposes  materials,  which,  if  left  unused,  might  be 
turned  against  the  credibility  of  the  Mosaic  records. 

"  From  the  mass  of  tradition  here  examined  it  would  seem  that  if  these  ancient 
legends  have  a  common  basis  of  truth,  the  first  part  of  Genesis  stands  more  generally 
related  to  the  religious  history  of  mankind,  than  if  it  is  taken  primarily  as  one  account, 
by  one  man,  to  one  people.  .  .  .  While  not  claiming  for  the  author  the 
setting  forth  of  the  absolute  truth,  nor  the  drawing  from  what  he  has  set  forth  the 
soundest  conclusions,  we  can  assure  our  readers  of  a  diminishing  fear  of  learned  un- 
beUef  after  the  perusal  of  this  work."— r>4^  New  Englander. 

"'  With  reference  to  the  book  as  a  whole  it  may  be  said  :  (i).  That  nowhere  else  can 
one  obtain  the  mass  of  information  upon  this  subject  in  so  convenient  a  form;  (2).  That 
the  investigation  is  conducted  in  a  truly  scientific  manner,  and  with  an  eminently 
Christian  spirit  ;  (3).  That  the  results,  though  very  different  from  those  m  common 
acceptance,  contain  much  that  is  interesting  and  to  say  the  least,  plausible  ;  (4).  That 
the  author  while  he  seems  in  a  number  of  cases  to  be  injudicious  m  his  state- 
ments and  conclusions,  has  done  work  in  investigation  and  in  working  out  details  that 
will  be  of  service  to  all,  whether  general  readers  or  specialists.  —T/te  Hebrew 
Stvdent. 

''  The  work  is  one  that  deserves  to  be  studied  by  all  students  of  ancient  history,  and 
in  particular  by  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  whose  office  requires  them  to  interpret  the 
Scriptures,  and  who  ought  not  to  be  ignorant  of  the  latest  and  most  interesting  con- 

the  elucidation  to  the  sacred  volume."— AVry  York  Tribune. 


tribution  of  science  to 


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THE  WRITINGS  OF  GEORGE  P.  FISHER,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Ecclesiastical  History  in  Yale  College. 

ESSAYS  OM  THE  SDPERMTDRAL  ORIGM  OF  CHRISTIANITY, 

With    special    references    to    the    theories    of    Renan,    Strauss,     and     the 
Tubingen   School. 

New  and  enlarged  edition.    One  Vol,     800,    $3. CO. 

"  Able  and  scholarly  essays  on  the  Supernatural  Origin  of  Christianity,  in  which 
Prof.  Fisher  discusses  such  subjects  as  the  genuineness  of  the  Gospel  of  John, 
Baur's  view  of  early  Christian  History  and  Literature,  and  the  mythical  theory  of 
Strauss." — Sorth  Antericati  Rcvicio. 

THE    BEGINNINGS    OF    CHRISTIANITY, 

With  a  view   of  the   state   of  the    Roman   W^orld   at   the   Birth   of  Christ. 

One  Vol.    8vo,  .  ,  $3.00. 

"  Prof.  Fisher  has  displayed  in  this,  as  in  his  previous  published  writings,  that 
catholicity  and  that  calm  judicial  quality  of  mind  which  are  so  indispensable  to  a 
true  historical  critic,  and  so  natural  in  one,  who,  like  the  author,  is  a  loving  disciple 
of  the  revered  Neander." — Boston  Advertiser. 

HISTORY    OF    THE    REFORMATION. 

One  Vol.    8vo,  ,  .  $2.00. 

From  Prof.  Charles  A.  Aiken,  D.D.,  Princeton  Theological  Seminary. 
Prof.  Fisher's  History  of  the  Reformation  presents  the  results  of  prolonged, 
extended,  and  exact  study  with  those  excellent  qualities  of  style,  which  are  so  char- 
acteristic of  him— clearness,  smoothness,  judicial  fairness,  vividness,  felicity  in  ar- 
ranging material,  as  well  as  in  grouping  and  delineating  characters.  It  must  become 
not  only  a  library  favorite,  but  a  popular  manual  where  such  a  work  is  required  for 
instruction  and  study.     For  such  uses  it  seems  to  me  admirably  adapted. 

DISCUSSIONS    IN   HISTORY  AND  THEOLOGY. 

One  Vol.    8vo,  .  .  $3.00. 

"  Prof.  Fisher  has  gathered  here  a  number  of  essays  on  subjects  connected  with 
those  departments  of  study  and  research  which  ^have  engaged  his  special  attention, 
and  in  which  he  has  made  himself  an  authority." 

FAITH    AND     RATIONALISM. 

One  Vol.     12nio,        .        $1.25. 

"  This  little  volume  may  be  regarded  as  virtually  a  primer  of  modern  religious 
thought,  which  contains  within  its  condensed  pages  rich  materials  that  are  not  easily 
gathered  from  the  great  volumes  of  our  theological  authors.  Alike  in  learniiig,  style 
and  power  of  discrimination,  it  is  honorable  to  the  author  and  to  his  university, 
which  does  not  urge  the  claims  of  science  by  slighting  the  worth  of  faith  or 
philosophy." — N.  V.  Times. 

THE    CHRISTIAN     RELIGION. 

One    Vol.     12>no.      roper,  30   cts.      Cloth^  40  cfs. 

"  This  masterly  essay  of  Professor  Fisher  is  one  of  the  best  arguments  for 
Christianity  that  could  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  those  who  have  come  under 
influence  of  sceptical  writers. 

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